Finding Your Feet Review – A Charming, Delightful, Comedic Drama

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Wednesday, 21 February 2018 23:14

Written by Janet Walker

Finding Your Feet, from Roadside Attractions, presents the story of two unique sisters so far removed from each other that it isn’t until calamity strikes, and what was expected to be forever ends, that they reunite.

Directed by Richard Loncraine, Finding Your Feet stars Imedla Staunton, Celia Imrie, Timothy Spall, Joanna Lumley, David Hayman, John Sessions, Josie Lawrence, Sian Thomas, Richard Hope, Victoria Wicks, and Marianne Oldham. Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft penned the screenplay.

Finding Your Feet begins at the home of Mike and Sandra, played by John Sessions and Imelda Staunton, who as lady of the house is politely giving directions to the event staff as they ready her home for her husband’s retirement, an event thirty years in the making.

Recently bestowed the Order of British Empire, OBE, Mike is now a Lord and Sandra, a Lady, as he explains to the gathered guests, how he couldn’t have made it to this pivotal point without his lovely wife.

Minutes later the sound of breaking glass draws Sandra to the garage where she finds her husband, who had just pledged his love, gratitude and devotion in a heated embrace with their best friend, Pamela, played by Josie Lawrence.

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As it that shock wasn’t enough, in front of all their friends, she admits that it has been going on for five years. The revelation is too much for the newly minted Lady to handle and she leaves her well-manicured home and life and heads to her sister’s apartment.

When we meet Bif, played by Celia Imrie, she is taking a cold morning swim when her bag is stolen. She is on the phone to Charlie, played by Timothy Spall, who is fixing the water pump on his houseboat that is moored alongside that of his friend, Ted, played by David Hayman.

Bif, we see, is a free spirit, a rare breed of someone who is a creation of causes and believes in each of them. Her home show her devotion to each one as she rarely throws anything away. Her friendship with Charlie, Ted and Jackie, played by Joanna Lumley, has grown over the hours, pints and dance classes.

Knocking on the door, Sandra, with her designer bags, perfectly coiffed hair, and smartly matched traveling outfit, walks in to Bif’s apartment, in a government subsidized project, it is culture shock.

Over the next several month we see Bif, who unlike Sandra whom one can read quite easily, is layered. With each layer we see more of this unique individual who has refused to let life define her. Embracing the moment, she is dancing with friends, hosting dinners, dating, and refusing to allow age or convention determine her lifestyle choices.

As the film progresses we find Sandra was quite the dancer, and has let hurt, and her husband, who felt certain activities didn’t fit their lifestyle, shut her down. Slowly she is drawn into the weekly dance class and after Bif, tell her to "come down off her high horse and show some simple manners" that she begins to shed some of the pretention.

The dancing group, Bif, Charlie, Ted and Jackie, with Sandra watching and critiquing, has developed a mash-up routine and decide to raise money for charity by staging a street performance and passing the hat. Sandra decides to give it a go and a video goes viral for all the world, and ex-husband, to see.

What follows is a surprising as life.

Finding Your Feet, is more than an empowerment film. It is a film about change and liberation, with one door opening, and others closing, and finding friends off the beaten path, and finally finding your feet, and the freedom to stand and be.

The actors, whom all are recognizable this side of the pond, give sincere and honest performances. They embrace their characters with gusto, with Joie de vivre, a thirst, an exuberance for life.

Finding Your Feet is filmed entirely in the United Kingdom, with trips to London and Rome. The cinematography in Rome is enchanting with our characters referencing the 1953 Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck film, Roman Holiday as I’m sure everyone does when they take in the eternal city.

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Magnetic, Finding Your Feet, a comedic drama, is simply about taking a leap of faith. Trusting, and not allowing the past, the future, or the unknown to build insurmountable roadblocks to happiness. It is charming, a delightful film about family, friends, sisters, and life.

Finding Your Feet opens February 23, 2018. See it.