Wondrous Oblivion

(Herald rating: * * * )

Belt It Like Botham might have been a catchier title, or There's Only One Davie Wiseman, or Spun Off, for the cynical viewer will see this as another in the batting order of English movies where the plucky tail-ender achieves against the odds. Bend It Like Beckham, There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, Brassed Off, Billy What's Isname, that ballet dancer.

The glass-half-full viewer will politely clap because Paul Morrison, who usually makes documentaries, has knocked up a charming and inspirational little movie. It's based around cricket, so this columnist was always going to come out to bat for the pint-half-full XI.

It's set in south London in the early 60s, where cultures collided: 15 years after World War II, 10 years after West Indian immigrants mingled with the Cockneys, a raw two years after the Notting Hill race riots.

Mr and Mrs Wiseman (Stanley Townsend and Emily Woof) are hardworking Polish refugees whose families died in the Holocaust.

They've put their only child, 10-year-old, cricket-mad but useless at games David (Sam Smith) into a private school; they aspire to join the middle-class Jewish community a few suburbs away.

Into the house next door move the Samuels from the West Indies. Mr Samuels (a wonderful innings from Delroy Lindo) puts up a cricket net that completely fills the garden and lets David come over to practise with him and his daughter Judy (Leonie Elliott).

Over the summer David's cricketing inabilities, and his standing at school, will be transformed. His workaholic dad will realise that he needs to spend more time having fun with his wife and son than in his shop. His mother will emerge from her shell.

Viewers who have their priorities right (i.e. they're watching this for the cricket) will enjoy the idea that Sir Gary Sobers could drop into a match on the village pitch. Bet you'd never see Beckham having a kick-around on Kilbirnie Green. Trivia fans: yes, you have seen Sam Smith and Emily Woof playing mother and son before, in a BBC production of Oliver Twist in TV One's Sunday slot.

* DVD not available for review.

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