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4.3.2.1 (Film)

by Belinda Hazleton | August 16, 2010 15:46 | Edited August 16, 2010 15:53

Despite its high energy, this light-hearted romp feels disjointed and implausible at times.

When developing 4.3.2.1, filmmakers Noel Clarke and Mark Davis set out to make a British film with Hollywood production values, thus escaping the usual genres associated with the British film industry. They were keen to ensure there were no period costumes or gritty housing estates in sight!

 

Their contemporary story is based around the intersecting lives of four girlfriends, who meet for coffee one afternoon in a London cafe. They are farewelling one of the foursome who is about to fly to New York. She has set up a face-to-face meeting with someone she has met online, and she has high hopes that this encounter will see an end to her lingering virginity.

 

Outside the cafe, as the girls go their separate ways, they are caught up in a scuffle, as a gang of boys careen along the street, seemingly after just committing some sort of crime. From this point on, the girls' stories are told individually, over the following three days.

 

Clarke's career has spanned acting, writing and directing. He made his directorial debut with the well received Adulthood, released in 2008, and it was his idea to bring on a co-director for this, his second feature. Perhaps this has contributed to the disjointed feel of this film, which, despite its high energy levels and rapid pace, never really comes together.

 

4.3.2.1 is both contrived and lacking in plausibility. For a start, the girls are supposed to be teenagers at college, but this doesn't ever ring true. They look significantly older. They are also such disparate characters, with enormously varied backgrounds, that it is hard to accept they could have been best friends.  But suspending disbelief, the film does have merit, with the parallel story-telling and edgy editing adding interest and effectively exploring the role misunderstood communication can play in friendships.

 

4.3.2.1 isn't intended to be taken seriously. It is a light-hearted romp, which only touches superficially on heavier issues. As such, Clarke and David have achieved their aim, creating a British movie that neither looks nor sounds like one.