Perspective is everything. Remember the time before Suicide Squad came out and half the planet seemed to be salivating over its arrival? A battering by the critics brought that express train to a rather sudden halt.
Living as we do in an age when being out-of-date or passé is almost an instantaneous experience, this throwback to more simple, slower times is some of a charming treat.
As someone who never even heard of the original Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, this latest adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s wholesome inter-war classic reminded me most of the Enid Blyton books I devoured when I was a child. I would have given anything to have been in the Secret Seven.
Growing up in a Corpo estate in Dublin, there was something quite exotic about the notion of living in a Home Counties idyll, spending days talking plummy, catching crooks and having homemade jam and scones for tea.
This particular tale follows four children who are dreaming of escape from the tedium of a summer holiday in the Lake District during the 1930s with their mother. When they're allowed to camp on their own on a remote island in the middle of a vast lake, things begin to take off.
Between crossing swords with a couple of feisty local girls and a sub-plot involving Russian spies, the story rattles along nicely, and there are fine performances from the young cast.
Trainspotting and Boardwalk Empire star Kelly MacDonald plays the mother, while Harry Enfield pops up with a great deadpan turn as the perma-pipe-puffing local yokel. Adult-wise, Irish actor Andrew Scott and Rafe Spall get most of the screen time as two spies at the centre of the sub-plot.
You could drive a herd of elephants through the pretty predictable plot, but if you're up for some old-fashioned fun and games, this is quite a jolly and spiffing diversion.
John Byrne
