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AMONG GIANTS Send This Review to a Friend
Good acting and a realistic atmosphere make "Among Giants" an interesting but not particularly compelling film, although it does have the novelty of casting Pete Postlethwaite in a romantic role. Postlethwaite, so effective in "In the Name of the Father" and "Brassed Off ," is hardly your typical romantic leading man.
Here he plays Ray, the tough foreman of a motley work gang hired to paint electrical towers along a route in the Yorkshire Moors. It's not a job without danger.
But danger of another sort appears with the arrival of Rachel Griffiths as Gerry, a drifter who enjoys climbing mountains and applies for a job with the crew. A woman doing man's work? The guys don't like it one bit, but Ray sets them straight. For Griffiths, who is getting a high profile these days as a result of her performance as Jacqueline du Pre's sister Hilary in "Hilary and Jackie," this is a totally different role, in which she gets to show both romantic and one-of-the-boys sides to the character.
As one might expect, trouble brews as a result of the bond that develops between Ray and Gerry and complications ensue in the workplace and personally. Sam Miller's direction of the film, written by Simon Beaufoy, makes the most of the outdoors scenes in which the electrical towers take on visual majesty and shooting at heights stresses the work risks. This isn't your every-day movie--that's good--but the lack of strong emotional impact renders the film slight, and that's not so good. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release
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