Gillies Mackinnon

Review: Pointless Whisky Galore remake lacks in spirit

A great cast alone does not a good film make as this all-too-gentle and rather pointless retread of Alexander Mackendrick's 1949 Ealing classic showcases.

Almost a year after closing last year's dreary Edinburgh International Film Festival, the remake of Whisky Galore! arrives in Scottish cinemas with relatively little fanfare. That's hardly surprising. It's a pretty pointless retread, gentle to the point of being soporific, and a waste of a wonderful cast. Revolving around the efforts of a group of wily Scottish islanders to liberate crates of whisky from a shipwrecked trawler during a wartime drought, the 1949 original - directed by Alexander Mackendrick and based on the novel by Compton Mackenzie - has become a fascinating snapshot of the period, something that elevates its appeal beyond simple nostalgia. Thats something that could have liberated this Eddie Izzard-starring remake; but instead it feels like a parody of its inspiration. Director Gillies MacKinnon may have resisted the urge to turn it into a straight-up caper film, but whatever merits veteran Scottish screenwriter Peter McDougall's script might have had on the page it has become wearisome and whimsical on screen, dulled by characters grappling with low-stakes personal dilemmas that seem hopelessly old-fashioned when viewed from a contemporary perspective.

Review: Whisky Galore!

Alexander Mackendrick's 1949 Ealing original, based on the novel by Compton MacKenzie was timely, set as it was during rationing, and tapping into a genuine lack as a boat load of whisky miraculously runs aground off a small Hebridean island a few weeks after the locals' supply runs dry. Here, in these gluttonous times, it becomes a one joke comedy. That joke being, us Scots like a drink.

Whisky Galore review

Gillies Mackinnon has recreated the cosy warmth of the original and the fictional Todday looks delightful. But writer Peter McDougall shows a lack of faith in his story by adding an entirely superfluous and inexplicable sub-plot about the ship carrying a briefcase with indiscreet love letters from Edward VIII to Wallis Simpson.