Lucky Break

Lucky Break - 2001 | 98 mins | Comedy | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Peter Cattaneo.
Producer: Peter Cattaneo, Uri Fruchtmann and Barnaby Thompson.
Script: Ronan Bennett.
Cinematography: Alwin H. Kuchler.
Editing: David Gamble.
Production Design: Max Gottlieb.
Art Direction: Andrew Munro.
Costume Design: Marion Weise.
Makeup Department: Veronica Brebner.
Sound Department: James Bellamy, Michael Connell, Tony Lewis and John Taylor.
Original Music: Anne Dudley.

The Cast

James Nesbitt - Jimmy Hands
Olivia Williams - Annabel Sweep
Timothy Spall - Cliff Gumball
Bill Nighy - Roger Chamberlain
Lennie James - Rudy
Christopher Plummer - The Governor

Plot Synopsis

Following up a global smash like The Full Monty isn't easy, but after a few years rest, director Peter Cattaneo has finally returned with Lucky Break, an Ealing-style comedy that has much in common with its predecessor.

After a bungled robbery, Jimmy Hands (James Nesbitt) and long-standing accomplice Rudy (Lennie James) find themselves reunited in HM Prison Long Rudford. Something strange is going on amongst the hardened men of B wing; they’re going soft. The inmates are putting on costumes and wigs and taking singing and dancing lessons. They've become thespians, and ingratiated themselves with the governor (Christopher Plummer) for an awfully amateurish production of his self-penned musical about Admiral Nelson, Nelson - The Musical.

But all is not what is seems, behind the theatrical posturing lies an elaborate escape plan. Ringleaders Jimmy and Rudy have come up with what they consider a watertight scheme to coast their way to freedom. But all is not plain sailing when a romance blossoms behind prison bars. between Jimmy and Prison Support Officer Annabel Sweep (Olivia Williams), and Head of Prison Security Perry (Ron Cook) smells something fishy. Will it be curtains for Jimmy and his gang, or will they pull off the performance of their lives?