Tonight You're Mine

You Instead is as close as it gets to being at a music festival without actually being there. Right from the start the audience is wholly immersed in the festival atmosphere. This is, in part, down to the crew shooting the entirety of the film at the T in the Park event in Scotland and featuring the artists performing there (Biffy Clyro and Joe Mango to name two).

Director David Mackenzie took the two actors and their supporting cast and literally dropped them in it. Up to their knees in mud at times and performing amongst a genuine crowd of revellers from start to finish. Luke Treadaway and Natalia Tena are more than convincing as frontmen of their respective bands, largely helped by Tena's burgeoning career as a musician with her group Molotov Jukebox.

You Instead takes brilliant advantage of an environment where the rules of daily life no longer apply. The result is a film populated with larger than life characters in a world we rarely get a glimpse of, and it's a great fun place to spend an hour and a half.

"If musicians can't get along what hope we got?" After Morello (Tena) shakes Adam's (Treadway) car in order to make him stop playing guitar they start to fight. When a security guard drives by and sees them he decides the only way to make them get along is to handcuff them together. That sounds bad enough but they are at a music festival and are both scheduled to play and no one knows where the key is. For those that have been following my reviews you may have noticed that I am not a fan of cheesy, predictable, un-original movies. This movie is an exception to that rule. Five minutes in the two are handcuffed together and after about 6 minutes you know how it will end. That said it is still very entertaining and really fun to watch. The music is actually really good as well and the song where the sample "Tainted Love" is great. This is nothing more then a cheesy predictable love story but even so I enjoyed it and I recommend it. Overall, nothing new and won't keep you guessing but this is still very much worth seeing. I really liked it. I give it an B+.

Thank heavens for "Tonight You're Mine" (or its original title in the U.K.: "You Instead"), a movie that manages to exceed my expectations for a story like this. Undeniably sweet, magical and occasionally funny at times, this rock and roll gem will surprise you from start to finish. It's also the kind of movie you can watch on a rainy day and you can still have a good time. Luke Treadaway from the "Clash of the Titans" remake and "Attack the Block" stars as Adam, one-half of the American rock band "The Make". His day is not starting to go well. He's supposed to perform at the "T in the Park" music festival in Scotland. While that happens, he happens to be handcuffed, thanks to a scheming minister, with Morello (Natalia Tena, Nymphadora Tonks from the "Harry Potter" film series), the band leader for the British female rock group "The Dirty Pinks", (who also have to perform at the festival) after some bitter arguments. All of this takes place at that festival and throughout the movie, Adam and Morello has to find a way to break out of those cuffs, play their gigs, and---possibly---make a magical connection that might find themselves in love. I know you think that this is another one of those groan-inducing rom-coms, but trust me, this is much different than that. Clocking in a rather fast time of 80 minutes, "Tonight You're Mine" has a heart that pulsates with energy and a soul that rollicks with a staggering sweetness. It's hard to believe that Treadaway (with a very solid American accent) and Tena are very talented (Singing and playing guitar/keyboard) on- and off-screen. But they are and they accomplished that in spades. Their chemistry together is incredible. The music in the film is amazing. It's like listening to a mix tape that you made before, but never listened to it until now and it happens to be a very eclectic mix tape filled with many different sounds. (One of the standouts of that mix tape is Adam and Morello performing "Tainted Love" on stage.) I give director David Mackenzie (of the sexually charged "Young Adam", the Ashton Kutcher disaster "Spread", and the mind-boggling "Perfect Sense") credit for taking us inside the actual "T in the Park" festival. It must have been very difficult to shoot in the festival for 4-5 days, bringing a lot of pressure on the actors. But it feels very authentic, real and organic. What also works is that Mackenzie and screenwriter Thomas Leveritt gives the characters a lot of humanity, including Adam's model girlfriend (Ruta Gedmintas), Morello's on-again, off-again boyfriend (Alastair Mackenzie, the director's brother), Adam's other half Tyko (Mathew Baynton) and the sleazy manager (Gavin Mitchell), who nearly hits on women when he's drunk. Yes, there are no surprises. But there's nothing to be surprised about anyway, except for a couple of them. That's why "Tonight You're Mine" is really magical in many ways possible. You won't be disappointed. Give this film a go.

Absolute best thing about this film is an introduction to Natalia Tena.. binged.it/1nPSBSU .. Go on youtube and look her up along with the group Molotov Jukebox. They have several fun videos, with a pretty good sound.. bit.ly/10YlzOk .. The film Tonight You're Mine is fairly standard stuff, but it did give a good feel of what it is like to be young and attend an all-out, in-the-mud music festival. And the worst thing about this flick is the choice of the last song... it should have been something totally special... instead it just kinda leaves things out-a-sync. Captions would have helped with lots of the inaudible dialogue... (hey... netflix listened!!).

For anyone who loves music and music festivals this film is a treat. It's a great premise; make a film about a love story during a actual huge outdoor music festival. You have to keep in mind that the logistics of doing this had to have been a b**ch. This is not a cult film, or a classic, or a carefully crafted under control movie. It is what it is: a simple rock and roll fantasy, probably sketched out in general and then written as filming progressed to take advantage of what was going on at the event. I applaud the filmmakers for having the b*lls to attempt this, and then coming away with a sweet story with fun characters and a good feel of the festival spirit.