Upon receiving a major promotion at a London financial firm, American Millie Cantwell, leaves her job, long-term boyfriend, and posh London flat to take up residence at The Filthy Pig, in the Scottish Highlands - in tiny village tiny village of Drumbuchan to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an opera singer.
Drumbuchan, you see, is where Meghan Geoffrey-Bishop, one of the opera's former great divas, lives in a ramshackle, leaky-roofed cottage bequeathed to her by an alleged fan. ("After seeing my Tosca, a woman came up to me and told me she was leaving me her home in Drumbachan. It was only after I arrived that I wondered if she actually liked my Tosca.")
Geoffrey-Bishop is cruel, venomous in the worst way, petty, temperamental and a true bitch. You know a true "diva." She agrees to take on Millie to prepare her for the "Singer of the World" competition . . . I'm sorry . . . the "Singer of Renown" competition. (wink). She bilks Millie an outrageous sum for the lessons, and the young hopeful gladly pays. Geoffrey-Bishop has only one other student, Max, a handsome, awkward young baritone who has a strange relationship with his teacher - a cross between mother and lover, but actually neither. He has entered, and lost the competition four years in a row, and was promised by his teacher, she would focus solely on him. Now, with Millie, there is competition - and a sexual attraction. A humble guy, Max wears a number of hats at the Filthy Pig; janitor, maintenance man, plummer and chef.
The film was obviously made by people who know something about opera, but there are obvious glaring moments that will be caught by true opera fans, although as I laughed and winced through these, I wondered if it was a kind of "wink and a nod" like an insider's joke. There is in the diva's studio, a photograph of her as Tosca, but it is her head photoshopped onto the famous photograph of Callas during a curtain call of the famous Zeffirelli London "Tosca." There is a similar photo of her Norma, while oddly enough there is another well-known photo of a casual Callas seated and lovely.
The score is filled with operatic music, some of it sung, some of it interestingly arranged for a variety of instruments, and we hear the singers in music from Barbiere, Don Pasquale, La Traviata, Romeo et Juliette, Carmen, Don Giovanni, and more.
The villagers of Drumbachan seem to love opera, and Millie wonders why everyone is so nice to her. The inn's owner explains, "Well, right now you ARE the economy." . While the film is not great, and doesn't plumb the depths of the opera world in any seriousness it is very easy to watch and its characters rather loveable, even Madame Geoffrey Bishop. She is played by Johanna Lumely, with aplomb, zero humility and just the right amount of self-centeredness.
Danielle Macdonald fairly sparkles as Millie, sometimes cluelessly, sometimes annoyingly but you can't help but root for her, even in this almost ridiculously unbelievable scenario.
Hugh Skinner is marvelous as Max. You're puzzled by his sullenness, his somewhat childish behavior and his face is marvelous at making quizzical looks with eyes that make you wonder what the hell is going on in that head.
Though neither actually sing in the film, Macdonald and Skinner each studied voice and languages in order to get the lip syncing right and show an understanding of the text.
There are too few films about opera for those of us who love it, and it's nice to get a semi-romantic comedy that at least tries to get things right. So, deep? Nope. Fun? You betcha.
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