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Brassed Off!

1996, Movie, R, 107 mins

Brassed Off!: Review

BRASSED OFF!
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As shameless and manipulative a tearjerker as any Hollywood fable of the no-hope underdog who wins the impossible win, this Yorkshire-set tale of political perfidy and the triumph of the common man spreads a thin layer of mining-town grit over the feel-good formula and pretends to be tough. No one will be fooled. Retired miner Danny (Pete Postlethwaite) lives to lead the Grimley Colliery Band, whose members are drawn from the ranks of local pit workers. He's got his eyes on a national brass band competition at London's Royal Albert Hall, but his musicians have more pressing worries: The Grimley mine is slated to close, which will leave them all jobless and with little hope of finding work in their one-industry town. Will the plucky little tuba players with coal dust under their fingernails make it to the top? Is that cough Danny carefully hides from everyone something serious? Will hard-luck-lad Andy (Ewan McGregor) and lovely local-lass-made-bad Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald), who plays a sweet flugelhorn solo but secretly works for management, get together? Does Danny's sad-sack son Phil (Stephen Tompkinson) stand a chance of luring back his estranged wife? These aren't really questions -- not for nothing has this been called the HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY of the '90s -- but never mind: If you're in a triumph of the human spirit frame of mind, this is your cup of dark, sweet tea. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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