91Èȱ¬

A cheeky con man comedy set in London's fine arts world, Fakers is all blag and no substance. Matthew Rhys (Deathwatch) stars as Nick, a Sarf London con man in hock to the tune of 50 grand, and desperate to pull off a job to put him back in the black. Enter Tony (Tom Chambers), a budding artist who's just stumbled across a lost sketch by an Italian master and can produce five exact copies to order... Can they flog five identical copies without anyone guessing that they're faking it?

Sparking on all cylinders, this energetic little Britflick tries hard to please, but never quite manages to deliver the goods, as Nick and Tom team up with Tom's sister Eve (Kate Ashfield) to pull off a spectacular confidence trick and sell the paintings to five London art galleries in the space of a single morning. It wants to be a rollicking little comedy caper, but even its best bits - a SMART car dash through London's Borough Market that knocks off The Italian Job on a microbudget - have an air of the amateurish about them.

"PERSONABLE BUT NEVER PERSUASIVE"

As the dodgy geezer with the gift of the gab, Rhys proves himself well. He's a personable actor, with a smidgen of movie star charm, that effortlessly sees him through the film's running gag: every time Nick meets the local mob boss (Art Malick, in a surprisingly formidable turn) he owes money to, he gets a kicking.

Playing a human punching bag is certainly better than squaring off against co-star Ashfield (so great in Shaun Of The Dead), whose role as Rhys's grouchy love interest sees her spending most of the movie with her jaw wired tightly shut in a fit of angry pique. Sparks certainly don't fly in their sniping romance, which is typical of this personable but never persuasive comedy caper's flaws.