Fisherman's Friends

A London music manager goes to Cornwall with his friends and comes across a group of fishermen singing shanties on the harbour. As a joke his friends tell him to sign them. He takes it seriously and moves to the town. The story is real. Fisherman's Friends have been singing in Port Isaac since 1995, signed with Universal in 2010, and their album of traditional shanties went into the British top ten. That is the film's best perception: nobody becomes a pop star, the men keep fishing, and the songs had been sung for centuries already. Chris Foggin directed, with Daniel Mays, James Purefoy, David Hayman and Tuppence Middleton. Its flaw is that the city man transformed by a small town is applied to the letter, the romance is predictable and the conflicts resolve quickly. Who it is for: viewers who like feel good British films and folk singing. Who it is not for: anyone looking to be surprised.