High Heels and Low Lifes

PëRMBLEDHJE

It's tempting to give anything with Mel Smith's name attached the benefit of the doubt - after all, he did direct The Tall Guy (way ahead of its time). But his noble directorial ambitions are ill-served here by Spice World writer Kim Fuller's lumpy comic script about a nurse and an actress (Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack) who get tangled up with London gangsters. Despite the feminist twist, this smacks of yet another Lock, Stock-influenced crime caper with nothing new to add to an already swollen genre. Driver completely outacts and "out-charismas" McCormack, thus unbalancing the Thelma & Louise double act, and only a cameo from Michael Gambon as a camp villain truly lights up the screen. Smith obviously likes old-fashioned Ealing-type comedies. Maybe he should've gone all out and made one, and dropped the trendy gunplay.