Wrong direction

West Is West is the follow-up to the 1999 film East Is East, even though everyone should have left well alone and busied themselves elsewhere. Didn’t they have curtains to hang, or cars to MOT, or kids to ferry between guitar and football and judo and extra maths? (Honestly, kids today; why can’t they stay in and play more computer games?)

This film has no real purpose in and of itself, or none that I can think of, and simply exploits what residual affection you might have for the original. It may not have set out to do this, but it’s certainly what it feels like, plus it’s mawkish and dull and such a shame. When you become fond of characters, you don’t want to see them tossed about and re-hashed in this way. Everyone should have left well alone, as you should always leave well alone unless there’s a chance other people’s kids are going to get into better schools than yours, in which case you have to bite the bullet and at least do the extra maths. It’s just the way it is, I’m afraid.

Actually, I watched East Is East again just the other night, as it was on TV, and although it’s not faultless — it’s often heavy-handed, and can’t decide how dark it wants to be with regard to the domestic violence, which makes for some tonal juddering — it still stands up as a lively, energetic, sharply funny take on multicultural living and how ethnic identity changes across successive generations of immigrants. This second outing, also written by Ayub Khan-Din, visits much the same territory, but makes the trip without any noticeable charm which, perhaps, it left on the bus. It’s easy to do.