Sunshine on Leith (PG) ★★★
Davy (George MacKay) and Ally (Kevin Guthrie), two soldiers who have just returned from Afghanistan, return home to Edinburgh. Ally is reunited with his girlfriend Liz (Freya Mavor), a nurse who happens to be Davy's sister, and she introduces Ally to her friend Yvonne (Antonia Thomas). It all sounds nice and cosy but of course things don't run smoothly. Nor do they for Davy and Liz's parents, Rab (Peter Mullan) and Jean (Jane Horrocks) - 25 years married - whose happiness is threatened when Rab's daughter from an affair early in the marriage surfaces.
This jukebox musical - an adaptation of the stage show - features songs by The Proclaimers. The Scottish duo's most famous song, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), comes at the very end. The quality of some of the others is variable and inevitably some of the numbers feel shoehorned into the action. Some of the accents are thick and some of the drama feels heavier than it needs to be and a bit contrived.
But it's something a bit different and some of the actors, especially MacKay, Mullan and Horrocks, are appealing. It's directed by Dexter Fletcher, who played Spike on Press Gang years ago.
There are no extras.
RON CERABONA
