Running time: 119 minutes
Starring: Con O'Neill, Kevin Spacey, Pam Ferris, James Corden, Ralf Little, Carl Barat, Justin Hawkins
Rating 4 out of 10
Based on Nick Moran's own stage play about the life and times of Joe Meek, an English record producer of the late 1950s and 1960s, Telstar suffers from being badly set-bound. Despite Moran's competence with a camera and a limited budget everything about this film is far too frenetic.
Meek's biggest success came with The Tornados' hit 'Telstar', which was the first British single to top the American charts. Prior to - and after - his work with them, he tried to work his magic with a variety of acts with varied success. As played by Con O'Neill (who originated the part on stage), Meek comes across as a high-pitched whinger who was a very very angry man. There's no black and white here, and none of the characters are given any time to breathe.
Meek's biggest flop came when he tried to push his own lover (Heinz) onto an unsuspecting British public, with little or no success, but their relationship hardly makes this another Prick Up Your Ears. In fact, you don't really feel that you are ever getting to know the real Meek.
He is a pretty unlikeable character, which consequently makes it difficult to like the film, and is surrounded by other one-dimensional characters portrayed by a succession of familiar TV faces. The exception is Kevin Spacey, who is miscast as Meek's pompous English benefactor, and does one of the worst English accents by an American in recent memory.
It's at best a curiosity of a film which is quite often all over the place in terms of plot. Although Moran does capture the spirit of the age, it's impossible to feel sympathy for anyone. Worst of all we learn very little about Meek's innovations and subsequent influence - instead he just comes across as a shouty man who behaved terribly towards everyone in his flat above a handbag shop.
Paul Hurley
Meek's biggest success came with The Tornados' hit 'Telstar', which was the first British single to top the American charts. Prior to - and after - his work with them, he tried to work his magic with a variety of acts with varied success. As played by Con O'Neill (who originated the part on stage), Meek comes across as a high-pitched whinger who was a very very angry man. There's no black and white here, and none of the characters are given any time to breathe.
Meek's biggest flop came when he tried to push his own lover (Heinz) onto an unsuspecting British public, with little or no success, but their relationship hardly makes this another Prick Up Your Ears. In fact, you don't really feel that you are ever getting to know the real Meek.
He is a pretty unlikeable character, which consequently makes it difficult to like the film, and is surrounded by other one-dimensional characters portrayed by a succession of familiar TV faces. The exception is Kevin Spacey, who is miscast as Meek's pompous English benefactor, and does one of the worst English accents by an American in recent memory.
It's at best a curiosity of a film which is quite often all over the place in terms of plot. Although Moran does capture the spirit of the age, it's impossible to feel sympathy for anyone. Worst of all we learn very little about Meek's innovations and subsequent influence - instead he just comes across as a shouty man who behaved terribly towards everyone in his flat above a handbag shop.
Paul Hurley
