The first film to appear from Elton Johns production company, Rocket Pictures, Women Talking Dirty is getting a somewhat belated release over here it was made in 1999 and one can only assume that the success of Bridget Jones has contributed to it finally getting a theatrical run.
The result is a mixed one theres much youll have seen in any chick flick or British comedy from the past five years but it still ambles along amiably enough to pass the time.What we have here is basically Beaches, in Edinburgh, without the terminal illness but with the same kind of character set-up. Bonham Carter is the Bette Midler of the pair feisty, outspoken, and with the kind of wacky outfits which suggest the wardrobe department had a field day while McKee is the Barbara Hershey type, the sensible one who gets to marry charming wide boy Daniel and settle down with him in his lovely apartment.
When it all goes wrong, which it inevitably does, Cora is there to pick up the pieces. And thus the friendship continues on an even keel, even though you know that at some point, Coras deep dark secret is going to pop up and ruin things.
With its colourful supporting cast including Nesbitt as token nice bloke Stanley, Richard Wilson and Kenneth Cranham as the middle-aged bickering gay couple, and Eileen Atkins as an eccentric old biddy this relies on every Brit-com cliché in the book, right down to mixing a bit of tragedy into proceedings to give it the air of reality. That said, the two leads are decent, the dialogue is sparky enough, and the Edinburgh scenery is more than easy on the eye.