Directors: Noel Clarke & Mark Davis
Stars: Ophelia Lovibond, Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, Shanika Warren-Markland. Adam Deacon, Linzey Cocker, Noel Clarke
Shannon (Lovibond), Jo (Roberts), Cassandra (Egerton) and Kerrys (Warren-Markland) are four good friends who have one hell of a weekend. 4.3.2.1. explores the different hells all four of them go through, as well as an overarching plot that involves some stolen diamonds.
The film starts off with all four of them proudly declaring that they are women and they can handle themselves etc. The film quickly jumps between the four of them, which is jarring and thank goodness this style is quickly abandoned. However, the film is split into four narratives. Ordinarily I love this type of film, but 4.3.2.1 didn’t fully work for me.
The first segment followed Shannon, and this was basically misery porn. Everything is piled on thick and it feels like the directors are manipulating the audience. You can’t help but sympathise with her due to the extent of what happened to her, but in some ways she’s an annoying character. Like, if someone comes out, beats up a load of guys who are attacking you, bustles you into a car, takes you back to their apartment do you -
a) Ask them who the hell they are
b) Thank them, and ask them who the hell they are
c) Do nothing, leave your stuff unattended and jump in the shower
If you answered ‘c’, well done, have a cookie. At this point I was wondering what the hell I was in for because it seemed unsubtle in its approach. The next narrative shifts to Cassandra, who is traveling to America to meet a guy she’s been chatting to online (although she’s never video chatted with him, which everyone knows is a big mistake) as well as going for an audition at some fancy piano school. This includes an exuberant cameo from Kevin Smith, and I quickly realize that this film is absurd and it’s not going to take itself seriously. The following narratives embellish the story around Shannon and fill in some other details, resulting in everything coming together neatly at the end.
It feels disjointed. The tone of Shannon’s story compared with the rest is jarring. The acting is uneven and it feels like a serious story that’s not taken seriously. I didn’t think many of the characters were likeable and by the end of it the plot felt like it was being dragged out. There’s also a semi-cliffhanger at the end, which doesn’t work for the film at all and it just feels like it’s trying to be too clever.
I liked the idea and the concept, but I think the people behind the film tried to be too cute and too clever, and rather than focus on the story and a consistent tone they decided to invite a bunch of their friends to cameo and threw a bunch of absurd stuff on the screen to see what happened.