Fall under her spell
Rating: 6/10
Running Time: 84 minutes
UK Certificate: 15
On DVD
Leon (Jack Davenport) isnt exactly alone in his slightly narrow-minded view of gypsy folk. Like many people, he sees them as carnival-working peg-salesmen who spend their days leaping from dodgem to dodgem, bare-knuckle boxing and placing strange hexes on all right-minded types who try to stop them from tapping a free electricity supply out of the nearest pylon.
Gypsy Woman isnt exactly the sort of film thats interested in putting to bed any such myths surrounding Romany culture. It DOES feature man-giant Nick Little John Brimble as a champion camp-site boxer, it DOES include a scene where Leons love interest Natalie (Neve McIntosh) steals a stallions horse-juice in order to impregnate her mare and, strangely, most of the other travellers to feature in the film look more like gnomes than gypsies.
Thankfully, this is a decent film regardless of all that stuff. Its a simple romantic tale of a lawyer who meets and promptly develops the hots for a gypsy lady who hes supposed to be talking into taking a pay-off as compensation for her hubbys recent death. Of course, as it turns out, shes not particularly interested in paperwork, and is more intent on leading her increasingly-exasperated admirer a merry dance around the relentlessly picturesque English countryside.
Its not exactly the most original film ever made, but for my money its better than its straight-to-DVD status would suggest. Davenport, whos reasonably well-known for his small-screen work in This Life and Coupling and later went on to appear in Pirates of the Caribbean, produces a solid comic performance and makes for a likable lead despite his characters initial small-mindedness. McIntosh seems a little lacking in enthusiasm for her role, but Davenports performance and the charm of the story in general just about make up for it.
Dont go near it if youve got a chip on your shoulder over stereotypes, but if youre after a nice, mildly humorous British rom-com, you could do much, much worse.
It's Got: Some far-fetched rural police brutality. It was never like that in Heartbeat!
It Needs: David Essex riding a bareback pony along a poorly-tarred driveway.
DVD Extras No extras here I can only assume some gypsies must have stolen them and hidden them inside an old waltzer. DVD Extras Rating: 0/10
Summary
If you like your soft-hearted comedy served with a neckerchief and some lucky white heather, youll love Gypsy Woman.