Sometimes. Always. Never. at Thame Cinema

DIRECTED by Carl Hunter, Starring Bill Nighy, Sam Riley, Alice Lowe, Jenny Agutter, Tim McInnerney, Louis Healey, Alexi Sayle, this new season of films at Thame Cinema 4 All, kicks off with an overlooked, bittersweet and whimsical British gem.

Bill Nighy brings his characteristic deadpan wit to his portrayal of Alan, a retired Merseyside gentleman’s tailor who has never recovered from the disappearance of his beloved son Michael many years earlier. Michael stormed out following an argument over a game of Scrabble – a passion that is shared by the family, who pride themselves on a rare mastery of obscure words. Alan’s other son, Peter, is now an adult with a son of his own. He has had to live in the shadow of his missing and unimpeachable sibling, living with the repeated stinging reminders of his status as the second favourite, while attempting to cope with his increasingly eccentric father and the endless search for the missing brother.

Meanwhile Alan, becomes convinced that Michael is trying to reach him when he sees a rare word being used in an online Scrabble forum – a word that he imagines few outside his own family could know.

Scripted by Frank Cottrell Boyce, this is a sensitive, poignant and very English film about fathers and sons, about ordinary families enduring loss and sadness, and with an exceptional cast of top drawer British acting talent. One to leave you smiling but with a tear in your eye. View trailer here.

Saturday, September 28, 8pm – UK 2018, 91 minutes, 12A certificate

Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame