Having You (2013) starring Anna Friel, Romola Garai, Andrew Buchan, Philip Davis, Isaac Andrews, Steven Cree directed by Sam Hoare Movie Review

Having You (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Andrew Buchan in Having You (2013)

Not alright Jack

It's taken him some time but finally Jack (Andrew Buchan) has proposed to his infertile girlfriend Camilla (Romola Garai) although his dad Peter (Philip Davis) thinks his job fixing old fruit machines isn't enough to support them. But then Jack suffers a blast from his past when Anna (Anna Friel), a drunken one night stand, shows up with a son who she says is his. It puts Jack in the midst of a dilemma having a girlfriend who can't have children and then a child he never knew about who he should get to know but in doing so could cause him relationship problems.

"Having You" is the sort of comedy/drama which splits audiences because there will be those who champion it for not being full of the broad comedy which you get from a Hollywood movie whilst there will be others who bemoan it for being slow paced and dull and basically not delivering the broad comedy which it seems perfect for. Whilst I like movies which try to be different I have to side with the latter camp as "Having You" is uncomfortably slow to the point of being forced and ponderous.

Anna Friel in Having You (2013)

Now the thing about "Having You" is for me this storyline which sees a man having just proposed to his girlfriend who has just found out she can't have children come face to face with a child which could be his is simply contrived and this sort of contrived screams out perfect for broad comedy. If the set up had been more realistic then the slower nature of the movie would have suited it better. And the thing is that after about 40 minutes or so as you are just starting to accept that out of contrived is this slow humorous drama it throws another twist at you which throws it back to being contrived.

The sad thing about this is that every single performance is good and each of the cast which includes Anna Friel, Philip Davies and Romola Garai manage to give their characters plenty of depth and actual character. Unfortunately the characters for me don't fit comfortable with such a contrived set up, making it feel uncomfortably false.

What this all boils down to is that with "Having You" you have on one side a contrived story perfect for broad comedy and obvious gags and on the other side you have this slow drama which is beautifully acted. Unfortunately the combination of the two doesn't work making it one of those movies which is too ponderous for the story.


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