Fakers

Plagiarism knows no bounds in this directorial debut from young Brit director Richard Janes, taken from a debut script by Paul Gerstenberger. It’s a comedy crime caper that begins with a stylish few minutes with a young artist sketching a voluptuous nude in an idyllic little Italian village. As mobsters arrive to spoil the artist’s fun, some even more stylish opening credits kick in.

Sadly the story is more run of the mill. Welsh actor Matthew Rhys plays a young jack-the-lad called Nick who owes 50 grand to Art Malik’s cultured bully Foster Wright, and if Fosty doesn’t get his money by Friday, it’ll be curtains for young Nick. However Nick’s young brother Tony happens to be the artist we saw earlier and he’s not only able to forge one painting but to do about half-a-dozen copies which will fool all the local art dealers. That’s a stroke of luck ! Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead) plays a bit of barmaid eye candy called Eve, helping Nick attempt to pull off his audacious plan.

Fakers betrays its origins all too obviously. It’s a first film made by British film graduates finding their feet. Its been made on a shoestring budget and looks like its been made for more readies than it probably has – there’s even a clever car chase through a market and open galleries for instance in one of those midget cars that seems to take up half a parking space! The plot though is too fanciful for words – everything fits together a little too neatly, and the script isn’t too exciting either. The director and producers will hopefully go on to do better things and one suspects the leading members of the cast certainly will.

by Matt Arnoldi