The Hardest Part

This is a heartwarming little portrait of an actor well into the autumn, if not the winter, of his career. Victor Perkins is his name, recognised on the bus by a fan of his major role, that of a butler in one of those various large household period drama serials that were uniquely Eighties. He has an audition, the first in a while, reading a major role, that of villain Tony Two-Toes in the next film from cockney gangland film director Eddie Brick.

Brick, and the brief sequence from his debut film Dosh, Diamonds & Destruction, are note perfect. Stephen Wight is Brick, a geezer director who went to, er, Eton and Oxford. Brick is also a massive fan of Victor Perkins, and this leads to fresh humiliations.

As Victor, veteran actor Nickolas Grace is brilliant. His salad days behind him, he's got some old glory, some hope, and an old rival; he and Jeremy Child bicker about who was television's most popular butler, fighting for the scraps after past success. The audition script appears again and again, in a variety of contexts, each time Grace's delivery is perfect for the situation - acting convincingly is hard enough but, as seen in Team America: World Police, acting as if you are acting is even harder.

Everything works in this film. It's beautifully put together, well-acted. Writer and director Oliver Refson has produced a film that's funny, touching, a joy of a film.