Review: One Chance

One Chance. With a title like that, you’d think the film was about someone’s one and only chance to achieve something in life, but isn’t this technically giving Paul Potts a second chance at fame?

Anyway, I digress. One Chance, Second Chance, whatever you want to call it: due to my TV Talent show addiction, I thought I’d give it a go and see what they’d managed to do with Paul Potts’ story. For anyone who needs an overview: Big guy who works at Carphone Warehouse sings opera to judges, judges enjoy, wins talent competition, lots of crying. This is what actually happened, however the film is a different story.

Instead of focusing on Potts’ mildly impressive singing abilities, they decided to focus on the minor detail in his Wikipedia entry which reveals he met his wife online. I went to see a film about a talent show/unsuspecting bloke who becomes successful, but I ended up weighing the pros and cons of online dating instead.

The film gives some quite unique advice for those looking for love. If you want to impress a girl, be as accident prone as possible. Apparently she’ll fall in love with you whilst stroking what’s left of your hair in the hospital. I decided to use the ever faithful means of Wikipedia to discover what was based on truth, and it turns out very little. It seems that Paul wasn’t in hospital for as much as the film leads us to believe (approximately a third of his life).

The story line’s pretty predictable, even without Wikipedia on hand, and some details will make you squirm. The highlight of the film is certainly Potts’ boss, played by Mackenzie Crook. If it wasn’t for him, the film would have been in tatters. If you want a genuine laugh rather than the sympathetic/nervous cackle you’ll get from the main stars, he’s the character to watch out for.

The last eight minutes of the film finally gave audiences what they came to see: Paul Potts’ audition. They finally mentioned Britain’s Got Talent and did a very hasty overview of his success. They even brought on all the Britain’s Got Talent judges for some sort of reality effect. Unexpectedly, the only actress of the three- Amanda Holden- was actually the worst and distracted from the scene I had been waiting over an hour to see.

Although the film wasn’t what I expected, and was certainly more of a love story than a biopic, I admit that I found myself chuckling along with the row of 14 year olds in front and the row of 70 year olds behind. You could say there’s something for everyone. If you love a good love story, that’s pretty much the whole film; if you watch a lot of You’ve Been Framed, it’s the romantic comedy version (ok, comedy is a bit far). It’s an acceptable rom-com, but it simply isn’t the story I went to see.

Images courtesy of huffingtonpost.com and guardian.co.uk