Dough **
Dir: John Goldschmidt. With: Jonathan Pryce, Jerome Holder, Phil Davis, Pauline Collins. 94 mins. Cert: 15
This is Britflick variant #7: The Cosy Small Business Caper (with Optional Comedy Drug Element). Jonathan Pryce is the cranky North Londoner whose kosher bakery falls under threat from ruthless Phil Davis’s convenience store empire; Jerome Holder the young Muslim who helps profits rise after covertly bringing his weed-slinging operation in house. Reassuringly predictable for the most part – yes, cultural differences will be overcome, and yes, Pryce loosens up upon breaking bread baked with Holder’s “special ingredient” – it succumbs to tonal wobbles and credibility issues late on. Still, welcome faces (Ian Hart, Andrew Ellis, Pauline Collins as flirty divorcee Mrs. Silverman) give individual scenes some spark, and the leads form an amiable double-act – though, given his past work with Richard Eyre and Christopher Hampton, it remains a mystery why Pryce isn’t getting more substantial scripts through his letterbox: he looks a touch squandered tossing flour and sugar around.
Dough opens in selected cinemas from today.
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