In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, jazz club owner Thomas Hinkman (Richie) conducts an ill-advised affair with club singer Butterfly (Richardson) - "Butterfly by name, scorpion by nature".
Sucked into a sordid world of gangsters, drugs and corrupt MPs, he plans his escape route from his wife and lover. Sixty years later, Hinkman's descendant Tom (Ross), his girlfriend Abigail (Tyler) and their buffoonish flatmate Chad (Bovell) uncover Hinkman's walled-up property - along with a dead body, setting the scene for a Chinatown-style mystery.
Tragic is the only word to describe this. If the 1930s dialogue is unbelievable (were expressions like "Chill out a little" really common currency in 1939?), the cast appear equally unconvinced throughout. "Oh Butterfly, I've fallen in love with you", says Richie's Hinkman, with all the conviction of a barman noting that the barrel needs changing.
Richardson's demeanour is less 'sultry' that simply drugged. Thank gawd then, for two saving graces: that Tyler is lovely to look at (for really, nothing and nobody else here is) and that it all ends so abruptly.
Sucked into a sordid world of gangsters, drugs and corrupt MPs, he plans his escape route from his wife and lover. Sixty years later, Hinkman's descendant Tom (Ross), his girlfriend Abigail (Tyler) and their buffoonish flatmate Chad (Bovell) uncover Hinkman's walled-up property - along with a dead body, setting the scene for a Chinatown-style mystery.
Tragic is the only word to describe this. If the 1930s dialogue is unbelievable (were expressions like "Chill out a little" really common currency in 1939?), the cast appear equally unconvinced throughout. "Oh Butterfly, I've fallen in love with you", says Richie's Hinkman, with all the conviction of a barman noting that the barrel needs changing.
Richardson's demeanour is less 'sultry' that simply drugged. Thank gawd then, for two saving graces: that Tyler is lovely to look at (for really, nothing and nobody else here is) and that it all ends so abruptly.