Crush film review

certificate_15

CRUSH

It's a shame they didn't go with the film's original working title of The Sad F***ers Club. It's certainly more fitting and memorable than the one they ended up with, which best describes the hopes of those who saw the film's promise lost with a sudden and drastic shift in mood. With its bucolic English setting, a story that includes several nuptials and a couple of funerals, and the casting of Andie MacDowell and Anna Chancellor, Crush contains many of the ingredients found in Four Weddings And A Funeral. However, the recipe is very different and nowhere near as tasty.

The Sad F***ers Club, comprising the romantic headmistress Kate (Andie MacDowell), the Bohemian police inspector Janine (Imelda Staunton) and the tough nosed doctor Molly (Anna Chancellor), get together weekly over gin and chocolate to swap bawdy tales and reflect on their fruitless search for husbands. "Finding a man over 40 with nothing wrong with him is nigh on miraculous," bemoans Molly, who's less interested in a man's looks than his income.

Kate's criteria are more emotional than financial. While attending a friend's funeral she is struck by the snakeskin cowboy boots and good looks of Jed (Kenny Doughty), the young organ player. Moments later the teacher and her former pupil are performing a sacrilegious act in the church's cemetery. "Well Jed, nice organ," Kate observes as she adjusts her clothing before heading back to the congregation. After being subjected to merciless ridicule by her clubmates, Kate defends her actions saying, "I wasn't looking for a life partner, just a tumble." But, against her own better judgment and the advice of Molly to "end it before someone gets hurt", Kate continues to see Jed.

Any film built on the premise that someone as beautiful as Kate would have problems finding a man is a stretch, but not as big as the one required to comprehend what, beyond an obvious physical attraction, the refined and prim headmistress sees in the unsophisticated Jed. Crush provided little evidence of what it was that compelled her to risk public humiliation and professional ruin by carrying on with someone young enough to be her son.