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 is threatened by ruthless Phil Davis’s convenience store empire. Jerome Holder is 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 after 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 spark, and the leads form an amiable double-act. But 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.
