RAVE - Pride

I may have said before - once or twice - that I often mix metaphors and judge movies by their covers, having a pre-formed review in mind before I even sit in the theater and pop my first handful of Raisinettes.

And so it was, a few days before we saw Pride that I said to a group of friends that we intended seeing this movie but I feared it would be full of the obvious South Wales coal miner versus Gay Londoner jokes, just like Marigold Hotel was full of the British retiree versus Indian humor.

But I was wrong.

Pride turned out to be funny, as most British comedies full of regional accents and observations tend to be, and not stereotypical in any way. Well, it was stereotypical, but not in a demeaning way.

It was based on the true story of the epic battle between two of history's least likeable characters, the miner's leader Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher. Scargill led the miner's through a year-long strike and Thatcher was her right-wing self.

A gaggle of gay campaigners in London saw the pressure and criticism undergone by the mining communities echoing their own experience and decided to collect money in support of one particular mining village in South Wales. They visited the village with the first of their collections, and initial mistrust and anti-gay bias turned into mutual trust and collaboration.

The soundtrack - full of 80s gems from Soft Cell, Culture Club, Joy Division et al - was knockout, as were the acting and the script.