Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

British filmmaker Shane Meadows' third feature is basically a contemporary soap opera about a young woman (with a sensitive child, of course) who's emotionally torn between the kindly but ineffectual guy with whom she's been living and the thuggish but supposedly charismatic ex-husband who shows up to reclaim her. What might have been just another exercise in working class social realism is given a twist, however, in the form of a goofy western motif, embodied both in the title, which hearkens back to Sergio Leone, and in a music score that recalls the spaghetti western themes of Ennio Morricone. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands thus becomes a seriocomic retelling of the archetypal sagebrush saga about the rough, violence-prone guy who rides into a peaceful town to challenge the weak, pacifistic hero, who--in turn--summons up previously unanticipated reservoirs of strength in a final showdown. But despite the efforts of a talented cast (including Robert Carlyle as the brute, Rhys Ifans as the milquetoast, and Shirley Henderson as the woman who must choose between them), the strange mixture never really gels, coming across as alternately familiar and affected. Optional. (F. Swietek)