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Bookmark this pageThe Baker (2007)
Director: Gareth Lewis
Movie review
From Time Out London
Playing like a would-be comic version of ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’, this gently likeable, undemanding and silly Lottery-funded – and clearly TV-bound – comedy-drama sees Damian Lewis (the writer-director’s older brother) as the hitman hiding out in a Welsh village hoping for ‘a second chance’ baking cakes with amateur vet Kate Ashfield.High-points include character actor Steve Spiers, as a landlord and re-enactment enthusiast, singing ‘Volare’ at a funeral; low-points, Lewis and Ashfield making out naked in a shower of flour and ketchup. In what you might call a postmodern awareness of Welsh and communitarian Brit-com clichés, director Gareth Lewis plays it all just this side of ‘Comic Strip’ pastiche but goes for an orthodox heart-warmer finale rather than a spoof ‘Dai of the Dead’ hail of bullets.
Michael Gambon, in a cameo gives a masterclass in how not to take things too seriously, a lead that most of the players dutifully follow.
Author: Wally Hammond
Time Out London Issue 1958 Feb 27 – March 4
User reviews of this film
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- Raj said...
- Posted on Mar 03 2008 12:30 good in places and not so good in others but original i'd give it a 3 out of 5
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- Ellen Chen said...
- Posted on Feb 28 2008 14:30 funny!!!
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- John Wark said...
- Posted on Feb 27 2008 13:24 Really charming and funny little film. Quite mad and original. I liked the girl from Shaun of the dead.
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Cast & crew
Director: Gareth Lewis
Producer: Damian Lewis
Cast: Damian Lewis, Kate Ashfield, Nikolai Coster Waldau, Michael Gambon full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Rated: 12
Duration: 85 mins
UK Release: Feb 29 2008
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