Shades of Shirley Valentine, Thelma And Louise and Terms Of Endearment pervade this would-be weepie of a female buddy movie, which stars Julie Walters in the sort of lippy Northerner role she can presumably play in her sleep. Although all the right ingredients are there, the recipe somehow doesn't quite work out.
Scripted by Kay Mellor, who is better known for writing such TV dramas as Band Of Gold, it charts the terminal months of the friendship between two production line factory workers who win a fortune at the bingo hall. Shifting the scenario to Vegas afforded Mellor and director Hurran the opportunity to switch pace and live a little; instead, the film feels morbidly unbalanced. Ages are spent setting the scene - factory tiffs, failed love affairs and grim hospital tests - and then the spur-of-the-moment trip is squeezed into the time usually spent on a blockbuster's closing credits.
The liaison with a leathery Kristofferson's kindly cowboy doesn't ring true and, the idea that Dawn's noble suffering makes those around her look guiltily in the mirror just isn't subtle or surprising enough to flood the tear ducts.