Sparkle

Liverpudlian waiter Sam (Shaun Evans) is on the lookout for a chance - any chance - to escape his dreary life at home with wannabe lounge singer mum Jill (Lesley Manville), when a chance encounter with Vince (Bob Hoskins) throws up the offer of a flat in Bethnal Green.

His clinging mother tags along on the journey south, despite her aversion to lonely Vince's attentions, heightening Sam’s quest for freedom.

While working as a wine waiter, Sam meets PR exec Sheila (Stockard Channing) and quickly charms his way into her bed - and a position as her personal assistant. He is content to adopt the role of a kept man at Sheila's icily minimalist pad.

But things get complicated when he meets, and swiftly falls for, beautiful activist Kate (Amanda Ryan)… who turns out to be Sheila's estranged daughter. The situation gets even more tricky as long-lost fathers and decades old affairs come simmering to the surface.

There's a lot going on in the third low-budget feature from writing-directing duo Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger. But its strength lies in the realistic interplay between each pair of characters.

While the love affair between Sam and Kate forms the crux of the plot, Sam's fraught relationship with Jill and Kate's tentative reconciliation with Sheila offer real emotional depth. They create believable backgrounds for each damaged character.

In a standout performance, Evans' Sam is shallow and self-absorbed, yet charming enough to escape his ménage-a-mother/daughter with the audience's sympathy intact.

Meanwhile, Bob Hoskins mercifully drops his usual Cock-er-ney persona and presents Vince as a gentle, just loner who provides a much-needed father figure for both Sam and Kate.

The performances are uniformly excellent (despite Channing's wavering accent) but the central love triangle seems too contrived to wholly convince. However, it remains an often witty and utterly engaging slice of life.

Ruth Ford