Friday 13 November 2020

Papadopoulos & Sons (Marcus Markou, 2012)


The overreaching ambition of food industry magnate Harry Papadopoulos leads him to take out a massive loan on a property development just before the bank granting it collapses and the end result is that when his estranged livewire brother turns up to propose reopening the chippy that they ran together decades back, he's forced to accede to the idea. The shock adjustment to slumming it proves easier for his kids, as he resists what he sees as abject failure in returning to where he started from. But then this is a feelgood comedy, where we know that any seed of residual kindness in the protagonist is destined to grow eventually. And so it proves.
Made in Morden on a micro-budget, Papadopoulos & Sons is hardly cinema breaking out into fresh pastures, with its basic East is East set-up, but fares well on a combination of good performances, particularly Stephen Dillane as the beleaguered, resigned and finally reborn Harry, crisp dialogue and an obvious love for its characters.

6/10

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