Among Giants

It's now clear that Simon Beaufoy (writer of The Full Monty) belongs to a tradition that includes the kitchen sink dramas of the '60s and the working class cinema of Ken Loach - but with a comic kick. If there's a Hollywood influence here, it's the Western. Postlethwaite and his gang don't have to get to Missouri, but they do have to paint 15 miles of electricity pylons stretching out across the Yorkshire moors in three short months. This affords director Miller ample excuse for swooping, vertiginous crane and helicopter shots. Such visual heightening risks excess - a romantic clinch between Postlethwaite and Aussie hiker Griffiths on top of a water tower is oversold by a giddy camera swirl - but maybe compensates for a narrative that shies away from tension or surprise. The pleasure of the movie is in the character playing and Beaufoy's ear for Yorkshire phlegm. There's a surprising delicacy in the May/December romance, a feel for those wide horizons people hold so close - and a terrific campfire scene.