Jack & Sarah

(UK - France)

Granada/PolyGram/Mainstream. Director Tim Sullivan; Producer Pippa Cross, Simon Channing-Williams, Janette Day; Screenplay Tim Sullivan; Camera Jean Yves Escoffier; Editor Lesley Walker; Music Simon Boswell; Art Director Christopher J. Bradshaw

Richard E. Grant
Samantha Mathis
Judi Dench
Ian McKellen
Eileen Atkins
Cherie Lunghi

Sparky playing, a generally sharp script and bright packaging add up to a neat little winner in the romantic comedy Jack & Sarah, a kind of After Nine Months London style.

Richard E. Grant plays Jack, a highly strung yuppie lawyer whose wife, Sarah (Imogen Stubbs), dies in childbirth. Jack names the sprig after his wife, but finds nappies and notarizing don't mix. His nosy mom (Judy Dench) and mom-in-law (Eileen Atkins) don't help either. Solution? A babysitter.

Enter Amy (Samantha Mathis), a bubbly, slightly klutzy young yank who likes kids but doesn't have any experience as a nanny. She moves in and an edgy friendship develops, with lotsa of complications up to fade-out.

Delightful though she is, Mathis faces an uphill struggle establishing a foothold on the pic, which starts to tread water in midsection as the tone gets more serious. Grant is terrific as the obsessive self-centered yuppie. Other casting is flawless down the line.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1995. Running time: 110 MIN.

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