Set against the backdrop of Scotland’s T in the Park music festival, You Instead is a breezy romantic comedy that makes up in energy and atmosphere what it lacks in plot.
The story couldn’t be more basic: rival pop stars Luke Treadaway and Natalia Tena get puckishly handcuffed together and are forced to spend 24 hours joined at the hip. Treadaway’s Adam is the swaggering singer in a famous Californian electro-pop duo, while Tena’s Morello is the spiky leader of a struggling post-punk riot-girl band.
At first, of course, they can’t stand each other. Yet as they yomp through the festival-site mud, negotiating the hazards of portaloos and sleeping in a yurt, and attempting to mollify their respective girlfriend (supermodel Ruta Gedmintas) and boyfriend (banker Alastair Mackenzie), it gradually dawns on them that each could be the other’s soul mate.
The pair may be yoked together by sturdy handcuffs, but the story is as flimsy as a daisy chain. Yet director David Mackenzie, filming guerrilla-fashion over four-and-a-half days at the 2010 T in the Park, really captures the buzz of being at a festival. Treadaway (the posh stoner in Attack the Block) and Tena (Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter films) fit their roles to a T, too. Even if you find the squabbling duo as irritating as they initially find each other, by the time they get on stage for their respective gigs you should be cheering along with the crowd.
On general release from 16th September.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQEuiXeOhb8
