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With its limp efforts to mix comedy and drama, High Heels and Low Lifes is in many ways a faltering attempt to combine the most successful aspects of recent British cinema. Directed by Mel Smith (whose The Tall Guy was unarguably a fine film), the movie tries to work the modern gangster genre into a more farcical setting. By basing his film on the story of two friends Frances (Mary McCormack) and Shannon (Minnie Driver), Smith is aiming for a Thelma & Louise feel, but falls some way short of the mark.

Having literally stumbled into a local bank robbery, the pair devise a plan to blackmail the gang behind the heist--a plan that descends into a rather predictable farce. McCormack certainly makes energetic use of the limited material she has to work with, and while kudos must go to Driver for picking a low-budget British film, she simply has been much better in her Hollywood work (notably the more understated humour of Grosse Pointe Blank). Indeed, its female leads aside, the cast is almost predominantly assembled from British television comedy shows, with Mark Williams from The Fast Show and Big Train's Danny Dyer acquitting themselves particularly well. Overall, though, it's not an awful lot to write home about.

On the DVD: High Heels and Low Lifes the DVD, like the film itself, is fairly average. The soundtrack (a vibrant mix of old and new) certainly sounds good and Smith's snappy visual style is well represented. The special features, however, fail to offer us anything particularly new or exciting, featuring the now standard featurette, audio commentary from Smith and writer Kim Fuller, and a peculiar thing called an "action overload"--essentially the trailer without the voiceover. --Phil Udell

Release Date: May 13, 2002
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