Movie Number 28 of 2022
The Movie: Falling for Figaro
The Cinema: Village Cinemas Rivoli
Stars: 3.5
Regular readers know that I will go to every English film I can get my hands on, and I was looking forward to this one for a while. It looked cute. It was cute. It was also just what was needed for a wet Saturday morning when there is very little on over the weekend. Call it a lovely diversion.
There's something comforting about an English RomCom too and Falling for Figaro has all of these features. Set in the country: check. A fish out of water: check. A grumpy leading man with a heart of gold: check. Great scenery: check. Eccentric locals: check. The one has the added appeal that opera provides. Yep, opera.
So what is this about?
Millie (Australian actor, Danielle Macdonald) is a fund manager with a dream. She wants to be an opera singer. Rather than taking a promotion, Millie jacks in her job and goes to the Scottish Highlands to study with Meghan Geoffrey-Bishop, an obstreperous hermit of an opera teacher who's allegedly can whip the novice Millie into shape. Meghan is played with aplomb by Joanna Lumley, who's really just doing another Patsy from Ab Fab, just without the Stolichnaya and the Bollinger to hand.
As the village is a one-horse town, Millie stays at the local pub, the Filthy Pig, where she meets up with Max (Hugh Skinner, or Fleabag fame) , the town's odd job man, pub chef and Meghan's other pupil.
Of course, this puts Max and Millie at odds with each other, with the requisite mutual attraction as they both prepare for the Singer of Renown competition, which is where the film finishes.
Included in this is the also required snarky boyfriend Charlie, who sees Millie's dream as a folly, as wel as the eccentric locals, lead by Gary Lewis, in a kilt, as the local publican, Ramsay.
This is a fluffy piece, but very watchable. Not only the is the setting of the Scottish Highlands, complete with herry coos divine, but the opera, and the processes opera singers go through is fun to watch. Of course, training to be an opera singer takes years - but this is a fluffy Rom Com and you can do anything here. Australian director Ben Lewin does an evenhanded job of this.
Okay, as English films go, this isn't British cinema at its best, but it is a lovely diversion, with wonderful music and it was a great way to pass a Saturday afternoon.
Take your Mum. She'll love it.
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