The movie Twin Town, released in 1997, was British television writer, Kevin Allen's first feature film. Allen not only directed the movie, but co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Durden. Many are familiar with the film's executive producer Danny Boyle who directed an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting. The film is a black comedy that tells the story of two drug abusing brothers who are thought to be twins by all who know them in the town of Swansea, Wales. As their sister explains it, they were dubbed twins to explain the obesity of their mother during her pregnancy with one of the twins. The brothers, Julian and Jeremy, are menaces to society in the seaside town. They enjoy stealing cars and driving them recklessly through the streets Swansea while smoking obscene amounts of marijuana. The brothers come from a colorful lower-class family. Their father is a carpenter who is obsessed with the sea and spends all his spare time building models of various naval vessels. Their mother, who also works, is constantly scolding the boys for making fun of their sister who works for a massage parlor, insisting that it is actually a health spa. The truth is that it is a brothel and their sister works there as a receptionist as well as a prostitute. The family's lower-class status proves to be an integral part of the plot of the movie.

For those of you who do not want any in depth details concerning the film, do not read any further.

One of the central themes to the movie is revealed when the two corrupt police officers, Greyo and Terry, are first introduced. The two men are standing in front of a building in downtown Swansea where, "Ambition is critical," is written in brass letters on the sidewalk. Terry, the younger of the two policeman, asks Greyo what it means. Greyo replies that it is a play on words by the poet Dylan Thomas who had referred to Swansea as, "the graveyard of ambition" and "ugly lovely town." Terry dismisses the poem as senseless and makes up his own, reciting, "pretty sh*tty city." Terry's poem is somewhat ironic because as a corrupt police officer he plays a key role in making the "city sh*tty."

The themes of ambition and lack there of play themselves out in the movie. The Julian and Jeremy have no ambitions in life except to steal cars and get money to buy more drugs. The contractor, Bryn Cartwright, is probably one of the more enterprising individuals in the town and definitely the most ambitious of the characters in the film. However, his greed proves to be his undoing.

Cartwright's downfall begins when Fatty, the twins' father, falls off a ladder while working for him. The brothers go to Cartwright to demand compensation and he snipes them, sending them on their way with the equivalent of ten U.S. dollars. This prompts the twins to exact revenge on Cartwright by chopping the head off his wife's beloved poodle. With the aid of Terry, the corrupt cop, Cartwright finds out that the twins are responsible for the slaying of the dog. Cartwright retaliates by sending Terry to execute the brothers' dog. Terry attempts to burn the dog alive in its own doghouse and inadvertantly blows up the trailor in which the twins' family lives killing their mother, father and sister.

This act of aggression against the family prompts the twins to find out who is responsible for the deaths of their relatives and exact revenge upon them. They first visit Cartwright and after being threatened with a flare gun he admits he ordered Terry to kill their dog. After his admission of guilt, the twins rig Cartwright up in his garage in a matter in which he will be hung by the first person who opens the garage door. Inevitably, Cartwright's wife returns home and attempts to open the garage door. She franticly presses the remote control only to have the garage door open one-fourth of the way. When she peeks under the door looking for the problem, she is terrified to find her husband hanging dead.

After taking care of Cartwright, the twins kidnap Terry. Previously, the twins had stolen their fathers' casket from the funeral. Fatty, the twins' father had told them when he was in the hospital recovering from the injuries sustained on Cartwright's construction site that he wanted to be buried at sea. The twins wanting to honor their father's wishes, stole a boat and took the casket and Terry out in the harbor. They strapped Terry to the casket and pushed it overboard, burying their father and avenging his death at the same time.

Terry and Cartwright were both victims of ambition. Terry in order to gain the good graces of the rich and powerful Cartwright ended up dead. Cartwright, because of his greed and selfishness ended up meeting an untimely demise as well. The greed and selfishness demonstrated by both characters stemmed from ambition. The twins only ambitions were to steal cars and do drugs, but their ambitions were more self-destructive than any kind of long lasting detriment to the society. The twins ended up truly making Swansea, "a graveyard of ambition." In the end, the lower-class who were downtrodden by the rich, got their revenge. Swansea was supposed to be a graveyard for the lower-class, but the twins turned the tables and came out on top.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie a great deal. I think one aspect that makes the film work so well is that the twins are played by real-life brothers, Llyr Evans and Rhys Ifans. This definitely solidified their performance as brothers in the film. The screenplay is another aspect that makes the film work. It is new and refreshing and does not play out any of the over used plot cliches that plague so many of today's films.

For people who enjoy this film I would suggest the also watch Trainspotting. It has many of the same actors and though it tackles much more serious subject matter, it too contains those moments when you do not know whether to laugh or cry.

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Recommended: Yes