"THE WALKER"/A UK-US SPECIAL

No matter what your standards may be, this is an oddity in the British film world.

The director is Paul (American Gigolo) Schrader. Can’t get much more American than that.

As for the actors, the lead Male: Woody (Natural Born Killers) Harrelson. Ditto macho American. Lead Women: Lauren Bacall (whew!) and Lily Tomlin (funny girl). Oh, and Kristen Scott Thomas.

So there is at least one distinctly British element after all.

Indeed, Thomas heads the female cast, as the criticl figure in Harrelson’s story.

For the record, he plays ‘The Walker’, a homosexual (yes, Harrelson, and very convincing too, headed by a bald pate!) who escorts lonely and sometimes unfaithful housewives around the Washington's social scene. His problems begin when Thomas’s lover is found murdered and Harrelson is ambiguously associated with the crime, leading to a myriad of political chicanery.

But the British connection goes far beyond Thomas’s pert face in front of the camera.

In an extraordinary example of how talent can travel, the consummate look of the film - the whole American visual - has been delivered by Brits, starting with costumes by Nic (Nanny McPhee) Ede); set design by James Merifield; cinematography by Chris (Stormbreaker) Seager; and editing by Julian Rodd. Watch it and relish the lushness of the world they have created.

In a further unusual twist, much of the finance for the film came from the UK, not America, raised by a man with strong UK ties, Deepak Nayar, the Indian producer of Bend It Like Beckham.

Filed August 2, 2007