Emma Thompson

In The Legend of Barney Thomson a mild-mannered and boring Glasgow barber, a scissors-wielding Barney accidentally kills his boss Charlie (Brian Pettifer) in an argument after Barney is sacked.

Terrified that his sacking will be considered a motive for murder, Barney decides to dispose of the body, and hope that Charlie's disappearance will be linked to the ongoing serial killings plaguing Glasgow.

Adapted from Douglas Lindsay's novel The Long Midnight of Barney Thompson, this comedy is chock-a-block with twists and turns, and boasts a superb cast -- Ray Winstone plays a fish-out-of-water Cockney copper convinced of Barney's guilt, Emma Thompson has a whale of a time playing Barney's hard-drinking harridan of a mother, while Tom Courtenay's turn as the least effective Chief Superintendent of all time is a joy.

Throw in Carlyle's own terrific performance as the harried Barney, and The Legend of Barney Thompson should be an instant comic classic, but somehow the individual elements, all excellent in their own right, fail to gel.

It's difficult to work out why, because Carlyle keeps things moving along at a fast clip and the comic moments are crisply timed.

The Legend of Barney Thompson is a frequently funny but ultimately dissatisfying black comedy.

The Legend of Barney Thomson review

Ray Winstone stars in Robert Carlyle's capable directorial debut that has some smart touches and a scene-stealing Emma Thompson.

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Radio Times review

He's not actually made a romcom since 2009, but it's still impossible to imagine Hugh Grant starring in any other kind of film. Tonight he talks to Graham Norton about The Rewrite, in which he plays an anti-heroic cad akin to his roles in About a Boy and Bridget Jones's Diary.

Joining him on the sofa is Emma Thompson, who was persuaded to write a sequel to Beatrix Potter's story about Peter Rabbit when the publishers cleverly sent her a package containing a half-eaten radish and a letter from Peter himself. She couldn't refuse, she said, because "it was such a witty invitation".

Cringe-worthy comedy more suited to the 1970s

Even if you really love Emma Thompson or Pierce Brosnan, and who doesn't, you will be hard pressed to squeeze much fun from The Love Punch, a witless, idiotic comedy that makes you cringe.

If real on-screen charm was enough to make an entertaining crime caper then there's no doubt that Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson have it in spades.

Attractive French locations add a pleasant background for an undernourished script that finds Brosnan and his ex-wife Thompson joining forces to steal a precious diamond from the businessman crook who has left them flat broke.

Brosnan and Thompson, and Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie as their happy go-lucky-accomplices all give writer-director John Hopkins much more than he deserves but in the end they, and the audience, are let down.

The Love Punch is a kind of grey-pound comedy, which is a little insulting for stars Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson, neither of whom are old enough to sign up for a TV funeral payment scam and free Parker pen. If only we could say the same about the prehistoric one-liners.

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Discover the beautiful filming locations of Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan's new rom-com.

Film review: The Love Punch

The Love Punch is not great art and the outcome is achingly predictable, but the on-screen chemistry of Brosnan and Emma Thompson fizzes and there are some hearty laughs amidst the nonsense.

The Love Punch is a British farce starring Pierce Brosnan, Emma Thompson, Celia Imrie and Timothy Spall, four cheerful Garden of England pensioners (Emma? You're only 55!) stealing a diamond necklace in the south of France in order to haul themselves out of impending penury. With its extreme mugging, it will feel either insultingly ridiculous or a simple amusement depending on how drunk you are.

Cinema can be perfunctory on the theme of love at the best of times, but Brosnan and Thompson play out their romance as though it were a game of charades. If they were wearing feather boas they would be winking over them until their eyelids dislocated, having the time of their lives in a champagne-and-trifle dreamworld while we loll, longing for literally anything else. A movie about Stalin? The Foreign Legion? Donald Duck?