Fanny & Elvis [VHS] [1999]

A 1999 romantic comedy starring Ray Winstone and Kerry Fox, Fanny and Elvis concerns Kate (Fox), a novelist who is informed by her doctor that if she wishes to become pregnant she had best hurry up. Distraught, she rushes to meet her husband but ends up ploughing her rusty old VW into the Jaguar of car dealer Dave (Winstone). They row furiously before both storming into the same pub, where they discover their respective partners are having an affair. With Kate financially embarrassed and Dave with nowhere to live, he lodges with her in lieu of payment on the damages to his car. Desperate to conceive, she seeks out the ideal sperm donor, as imagined in a running series of Wuthering Heights-type scenarios, before finding herself drawn to Dave.

It's all a little too cute. From the arresting North Yorkshire scenery to the obligatory carefree gay confidante, it feels like romantic Brit-comedy by numbers. Ray Winstone's transformation from barking, farting Sarf London geezer to soulful New Man is a bit abrupt, Jennifer Saunders is on auto-pilot as an Ab Fab-style literary agent and the ending is protracted and mawkish--a few more laughs wouldn't have gone amiss. Still, Fox carries her role very well and overall this is pleasant, if undemanding fare.--David Stubbs