ThiefHott Too much of everything

GazerRise Fantastic!

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

cmon3590 I saw this movie for the first time on Australian TV last night and was really impressed by it.It focuses on the lives of two English working-class best friends, one of whom becomes terminally ill soon after learning she has won big in a lottery. This theme may sound somewhat clichéd, but that's not how it transfers to screen in this movie. The topic of cancer is handled realistically yet respectfully (for example, no graphic scenes of pain or vomiting, etc), and the relationship between the best friends (Jackie and her soon-to-be sick friend, Dawn) is poignant in it's portrayal. Because of the typically down-to-earth British-style acting, you are not left feeling that you've simply fallen for another tear-jerker, rather, that you've actually experienced something that could easily be a tragic, real-life scenario.It wasn't sappy or melodramatic at all, although having said that, cancer IS dramatic, so even it had been handled this way it wouldn't have been a problem for me. The scene where Dawn says that an angel visited her in a dream and kissed her on the shoulder made me want to cry. She seems just like a vulnerable child here, which is what serious illness does to people.Many people in today's society take things like international travel for granted. But for many folk out there, particularly the sort of characters portrayed in this movie, such things are only ever imagined. So when Jackie takes her dying friend Dawn to Las Vegas for one last blast, personally, I found it very touching. Dawn's character probably never thought something like this could happen to her (or that she would win big in a lottery in the first place!) so you really feel for her and want her to enjoy herself. This part of the movie also provides a good opportunity for some of the movie's lighter moments, for example, when Jackie and Dawn become like giggling teenage girls again over an attractive hotel porter! The only thing that was a little depressing for me was the apparent lack of any real relationship between Dawn and her kids. They are portrayed as quite bratty, but as a dying woman I kept expecting Dawn to try and form one last close bond with them, which never seemed to happen. It would have been nice if we could have seen Dawn's kids (and her husband) sharing in her life's revelations as well, not just her best friend/sister-in-law, Jackie.Overall though, I was really touched by this film. It is humble where it should be humble, dynamic where it should be dynamic. Both the main actresses (Walters and Blethyn) do a superb job and seem to really understand the characters they are portraying. I recommend it to anyone to watch, particularly women.

Rogue-32 Girls' Night is a revelation, a subtle and masterful little film that builds slowly, creating beautifully nuanced characters, and ultimately delivering a deeply-felt emotional wallop thanks to the magnificent performances of its two stars, Brenda Blethyn and Julie Walters. The power between them is so intense, so true and so pure that the energy of it literally sears through the screen.

Martin Pollard Northern accents and wide-eyed astonishment at Las Vegas aside, you could be forgiven that this was a Hollywood weepie rather than the working-class British drama it pretends to be. Brenda Blethyn's and (particularly) Julie Walters' performances are detailed and superb, but the cloying sentimentality (including some sick-making talk of angels) is heaped on to the extent that the film becomes tedious rather than sympathetic.The first half of Girls' Night is enjoyable for its sheer joie de vivre in the face of serious illness, but after around 45 minutes this is lost in a sea of half-baked ideas, repetitive emotional 'scenes' and irritating semi-fairytale romances which upset the previously realistic atmosphere of the piece.Other than the performances, something of a shapeless disappointment.

edward wilgar Girl's Night is a bit sentimental for my taste and there were fewer funny lines than I expected but the performances are the thing and both "girls" are superb and great foils for one another.I particularly enjoyed the Las Vegas section as I was there last year so it all came back.