DVD Review: 1234

“Step one – learn three chords”

Those who know me will instantly recognise the main point of interest for me in this film (lovely lovely Kieran Bew who was lovely in a pub in Bath once) but it also stars Ian Bonar who holds a special place in my heart for being the first lead Tom Wells character I ever did see in Me, As A Penguin back in 2010. Sadly, neither could really save Giles Borg’s low-budget indie flick for me as 1234 fails to bring anything significant to the world of band movies.

The premise of the film is simply that an ill-matched group of 3 guys and a girl set up a band and that really is about it. But even within this simplicity which could have worked, there’s a paucity of believable characters with realistic relationships or any real sense of personal involvement as the writing is just so thin. So it becomes extremely hard to get invested in or even really care about the dilemmas the band finds themselves in and as that is all there is to the plot, the film is sunk from the outset.

It is decently well acted – Bew and Bonar are joined by Lyndsey Marshal and Mathew Baynton in the band as they battle through general disinterest from record labels and their own competing egos, but there’s never really enough at stake as the writing treats them so poorly. I’d struggle to recommend this at all to be honest. 

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