CAST
Helena Bonham Carte Cora
Gina McKee Ellen
James Purefoy Daniel
James Nesbitt Stanley
Director Coky Giedroyc
Producers David Furnish, Polly Steele
Screenplay Isla Dewar
Running Time tbc
Distributor UIP

IN A NUTSHELL
Career woman Ellen and single mum Cora become friends after a chance meeting in a pub. Over the years, life throws all kinds of crises at them, from Ellen's divorce, to a secret that Cora is forced to keep from her - one which threatens to change the friendship forever.

The first film to appear from Elton John's production company, Rocket Pictures, Women Talking Dirty is getting a somewhat belated release over here - it was made in 1999 - and one can only assume that the success of Bridget Jones has contributed to it finally getting a theatrical run. The result is a mixed one - there's much you'll have seen in any chick flick of British comedy from the past five years - but it still ambles along amiably to pass the time.

What we have here is basically Beaches, in Edinburgh, without the terminal illness but with the same kind of character set-up. Bonham Carter is the Bette Midler of the pair - feisty, outspoken, and with the kind of 'wacky' outfits which suggest the wardrobe department had a field day - while McKee is the Barbara Hershey type, the sensible one who gets to marry charming wide boy Daniel and settle down with him in his lovely apartment. When is all goes wrong, which is inevitably does, Cora is there to pick up the pieces. And thus the friendship continues on an even keel, even though you know that at some point, Cora's deep dark secret is going to pop up and ruin things.

With its colourful supporting cast - including Nesbitt as token nice bloke Stanley, Richard Wilson and Kenneth Cranham as the middle-aged bickering gay couple, and Eileen Atkins as an eccentric old biddy - this relies on every Brit-com cliché in the book, right down to mixing a bit of tragedy into proceedings to give it the air of reality. That said, the two leads are decent, the dialogue is sparky enough, and the Edinburgh scenery is more than easy on the eye.
Caroline Westbrook