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"My name is Bernie Reuben, and this is my story," intones the 12-year-old hero of Sixty Six, a warm-hearted coming-of-age tale set in the year of England's World Cup victory. The focus, though, is this young Londoner's quest to have "the Jesus Christ of Bar Mitzvahs" - something made increasingly unlikely by his family's perilous finances, his neighbours' indifference and the terrifying realisation that the date he's chosen for his big day coincides with a certain Cup Final at nearby Wembley.

"England's got two chances - no chance and fat chance," scoffs Bernie's dad Manny (Eddie Marsan), a humble grocer whose business is struggling to survive the opening of a supermarket across the street. Hindsight, of course, tells us different, lending a poignant humour to the boy's deluded attempt to make his bash the only place to be come on 30 July. Thanks to his long-suffering mother (Helena Bonham Carter) and the kindly doctor treating his asthma (Stephen Rea), however, he gradually realises there are more important things than a slap-up kosher buffet.

"NOSTALGICALLY EVOKES A GLORIOUS SUMMER"

Billed as "a true...ish story", Sixty Six caters for a fairly narrow demographic: namely, Jewish fifty-somethings whose experiences roughly tally with those of director Paul Weiland. How much his picture appeals beyond that depends largely on its nostalgic evocation of a glorious summer forever imprinted in the hearts of a generation. Given the personal nature of the material, though, it's a shame Weiland resorts to the kind of coarse ethnic caricatures one hoped had died with Mike and Bernie Winters.