Winning London (2001)

Chloe Lawrence (Mary-Kate Olsen) - the star student in her Model UN club - is on the up and up. Along with the rest of her team - Brian (Brandon Tyler), Rachel (Rachel Roth) and Dylan (Eric Jungmann), they have been invited to participate in the international competition, which this year is being held in London, England.

Their teacher, Mr. Holmes (Steven Shenbaum) accompanies them, along with Chloe's twin sister, Riley (Ashley Olsen), who has been roped into the team after their fifth member was unable to join them because of an existing family commitment.

Chloe is pretty certain that Riley only wants to be a part of the team so she can spend time with Brian, whom she has had a crush on for many years. And naturally, she's right. But Brian is not the least bit interested in Riley, at least not in that way; he's never seen her as anything more than a family friend.

Chloe (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Riley (Ashley Olsen).

When they get to London, they are informed by one of the supervisors, Ms. Watson (Claire Yarlett) - that's right, the two main adult characters are named Holmes and Watson, and there are plenty of references made to this throughout - that due to a database error, their country (in the Model UN) is not China as it has always been, but is now England.

This means they only have a couple of days in which to completely familiarise themselves with everything about England, in order to be as in character and effective as possible once the competition starts.

On Riley's suggestion, rather than merely reading up about England, they decide to spend the majority of their time wandering around the city, soaking up as much history and culture as they can.

Chloe, however, just wants to knuckle down, study, and win the competition. And it would be a lot easier if she wasn't developing an interest in one of the young boys from the English team, James Browning (Jesse Spencer), who just happens to be the son of a Lord, as in from the House of Lords.

Chloe (Mary-Kate Olsen) and James Browning (Jesse Spencer).

The screenplay, written by Karol Ann Hoeffner, is not particularly exceptional. It follows a pretty standard three-act structure, with very few twists and turns. The characters are somewhat defined, but seem to be a little too similar to each other to allow for clear distinctions. Not only that, but the screenplay descends into stereotypes and cliches far too often. This is clearly a film made for audiences who do not have a great deal of understanding about the real England, but have only limited exposure from other films and television.

Not every cab driver in London speaks with a Cockney accent - or indeed in Cockney rhyming slang, which has to be subtitled throughout - nor does everyone in England say 'Hear, hear' or 'How do you do?' or any other cliche or stereotype you might think of.

Brahm Wenger's score is quite good. The use of original music is balanced well with the use of current (current at the time the film was made) popular songs to provide a decent soundtrack to the film. This does little to make up for the rest of the film, however, but I didn't want to let the opportunity pass without mentioning that at least the score is good.

The production design, courtesy of Jack Cloud, is also reasonable, with all the sets, locations and set pieces suited perfectly to their respective needs.

  

The film has very little in the way of complex plot, though. The majority of the film consists of montage sequences featuring the five teenagers going to almost every recognisable landmark in the entire city of London.

The performances of the cast also leave a lot to be desired. Most of the cast seem content to simply recite their lines - usually without a lot of emotion or inflection behind them. The standouts of the cast are in fact the Olsen twins - and even then, they aren't great.

Craig Shapiro - who directed the film - has made a reasonably adequate film that I'm sure audiences who enjoy films of this ilk will find plenty within it to enjoy - but I found little basis on which to recommend it. The film did not have a theatrical release, but was released direct-to-video, or these days, direct-to-DVD. I watched it once for the purposes of this review, but don't think I'll be hurrying to watch it again.

This film isn't bad. Unfortunately, it isn't that good, either.

5 out of 10.