Comedy is cosy but cliché

Finding Your Feet a predictable rom-com with the usual tropes

Looks like someone’s been watching a lot of Mike Leigh movies. Finding Your Feet stars Leigh (and Harry Potter) regulars Imelda Staunton and Timothy Spall, and its lightweight drama includes everything but the kitchen-sink realism.

Staunton is Sandra, whose marriage of 35 years has just fallen apart in a way that, like so much of the film’s plot, is oh-soconvenient — she catches hubby snogging his paramour during a party. Bereft and homeless, she moves in with her sister Bif

(Celia Imrie), whose life could not be more opposite to that of the social-climbing Sandra.

What follows is a just-so romantic comedy-drama, enlivened by endless cups of the tea and the occasional hit of “something stronger.” Sandra gets drawn into Bif ’s circle of friends, which includes a potential love interest (Spall).

It’s cosy cinema at its cosiest. I was going to suggest you take your mom, but perhaps better to skip a generation and bring granny. Between the piano-andviolins score, soft platitudes and one-liners — “It’s one thing being scared of dying ... a whole different matter being afraid of living!” and even a convenient death (after a tidy illness), there’s nothing in the film to alarm or annoy, unless you crave originality.

There is a dance number in the streets of London that “goes viral” in a way that suggests director Richard Loncraine doesn’t know what the term means. And every plot turn is mapped out and signposted, with the script taking the easy path every time. I can almost hear the GPS: “In 400 metres, introduce a mild complication. In 113 minutes, wrap it up tidily. You have reached your destination. Have some tea.”