Off the Rails is one of those gentle ensemble comedies that we do so well (Calendar Girls, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, etc.), except when we don’t, and it all falls rather flat, and feels like the B-side of a Richard Curtis film. This comes in, alas, at the flatter, B-side end of the spectrum, even if its heart is in the right place and all the other things you say when a film doesn’t deserve a kicking. But you can’t really say it’s any good.
Plot-wise the deal is: to comply with the dying wish of their best friend, Liz (Sally Phillips), Kate (Jenny Seagrove) and Cassie (Kelly Preston) must take her 18-year-old daughter, Maddie (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips), on the interrailing trip around Europe that they never quite finished when they were young. It opens at the funeral, with a cameo from Judi Dench as the mother of the deceased, which offers some emotional heft, but otherwise there are annoyances right from the start. Why does Liz not recognise Maddie? Why does she whisper ‘Who’s that?’ from her pew? What kind of best friends are these people? Weren’t they in touch on Facebook at least? Heart in the right place and all that, but plausibility isn’t a strong feature here.
Directed by Jules Williamson and written by Jordan Waller, it’s as if the characters have been drawn from a pick-your-trope screenwriting manual. Liz, for example, is the controlling one who needs to let go, while Cassie is the alcoholic Hollywood soap star. Kate is hardened against romance (or is she?). The performances are fine but there is nothing for any of the actresses to properly get their teeth into. Meanwhile, as they travel across Europe there are, of course, tears, laughter, mishaps, feuds, cultural stereotypes and the possibility of love affairs in the form of Ben Miller and Franco Nero.
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