Film

Bodywork (1999)

Director: Gareth Rhys Jones

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Luckless yuppie Virgil Guppy (Matheson) is framed for murder when the body of a prostitute turns up in the boot of his Jag. The evidence points to a set-up involving the crooks who sold him the car. But the 'comic coppers' on the case aren't listening, and girlfriend Fiona (Winslet), about to take off in the direction of his best friend's bed, is asking awkward questions like, why did he come home from the launderette without his trousers on. Enter incurably ill car thief-cum-tattoo artist Tiffany (Coleman), her super-smart kid and their East European(ish) sidekick, offering sanctuary. This plays like the first episode of a one-series sitcom; and if writer/director Rhys Jones had any designs on subverting peekaboo games in the changing room, he fails to deliver them. The juxtaposition of humour and violence is self-conscious, the symbolism leaden, the suspense non-existent and the killer's excuse of a Rope-style motive risible.

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