If you thought Peter Chelsom's previous film, Hear My Song, was a shade peculiar, wait till you see this offering - a one-of-a-kind movie about comedians that has some genuinely funny moments and a lot of very dark ones too: comedy that continually threatens to turn into tragedy and vice versa.

In Hollywood, bulky Oliver Platt is the father-haunted son of an ace comic (Jerry Lewis).

Fleeing to the Blackpool (Lancashire) of his childhood, he hopes to find some of the material that inspired his father.

Instead, he discovers his seemingly half-witted half-brother (Lee Evans), a genuine comic genius, and the other members of the family from whom Lewis stole the material that made him a star.

What follows is akin to Punch and Judy in its shades of violence, menace and fun.

Evans steals the show as the Norman Wisdom-style clown seemingly sidelined for ever after killing a man in the circus ring.

Asked to choose the odd one out between avarice, greed, envy and kindness, Evans selects 'and'. It's that kind of film.