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Each year more than a million people flock to Scotland for the Edinburgh International Festival.

While some buy tickets for high brow entertainment like ballet and opera, others prefer to hang out in dingy clubs and miniscule theatres watching any old performer who’s bothered to show up. Festival the movie, for all its sins — and there are many — sits with the latter group.

In the one corner we’ve got the wide-eyed Faith Myers and her one woman show that no-one goes to see; Tommy O’Dwyer, a scruffy Irish comedian who has been on the circuit for nine years and never got a break; Nicky Romanowski, the ditzy ambitious blonde; Joan Gerard the local radio station’s jaded art critic and a sprinkling of other horrible, self-obsessed characters who think they’re more talented than they really are.

In the other, is a bunch of Canadians into experimental theatre who rent out a posh woman’s house in the city.

The most exciting thing that happens to them is hanging out with a Scot whose accent is so broad they can’t understand him. It’s that kind of movie.

The most obnoxious character of all though is the already-made-it comic Sean Sullivan. A judge in the competition, he rubs it everyone’s face he’s a star, treats his assistants like trash and spends more time bedding women.

On that note, you might want to bear in mind Festival features one erect penis, a pair of breasts and several bare bottoms.

Anyway… Writer/director Annie Griffin sticks with the Film Four/Scottish Film Council formula of trying to keep things as real as possible: The characters are believable, if a little over the top, their interactions familiar and the camerawork naturalistic.

Anyone familiar with the arts — in its broadest terms — will be familiar with the scenes and dialogue in the movie. They will also be familiar with the fact that performers, once the light goes down, can be the bitterest, sourest, most miserable people you could ever wish to meet.

There are times in this movie when you wonder why you’re even bothering watching them — you certainly wouldn’t want to in real life.

And that’s the problem with so many of these films, you start wondering what’s the point?

That said, Festival gives you a nice feeling for Edinburgh in the summertime. It’s straightforwardly directed, putting maximum focus on the characters. The actors, to their credit, make the most of a somewhat iffy script.[[In-content Ad]]

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