I'm not just saying it was excellent because my dad Darren Dobbs was in it its because it was a great film i really enjoyed watching it and IOWN was in it and he is one of my favourite actors he has been in loads of films i love Hornblower titanic and very Annie Mary!! I hope sum one reads this soon and gets back in touch with me i would so love 2 meet with IOWN he is one of my favorite actors encluding Chris Evans who was also in fantastic 4 with IOWN. It would be a plesure to meet with him and my dad has already met IOWN backstage of very Annie Mary.I loved ere body's acting in the film they all performed very well lots of love Kirsty xxx

I had never heard of this film but it was in my local library in north London so I decided to give it a try. It took a while to get into it and at first I found most of the characters annoying; either caricatures or buffoons. But it sort of grew on me. It is certainly far better than a good deal of the Hollywood dross that is foisted on us because of the distribution system in the UK. Quirky, funny, sometimes irritating but mostly amusing, this made me long to go back to Wales. It seemed to get to the heart of the country in the way that The Full Monty got into the heart of Sheffield. The two gay guys doing "Annie Get Your Gun" was one of many very funny, and touching, original little scenes with which this film is filled. I think this movie may well grow as it ages and eventually be seen as a little classic. I hope so because, at least for one afternoon, it really made me smile.

Very Annie Mary took me by shock and surprise. Rachel Griffiths gives her finest performance – and though the film is 3 years old, she hasn't as yet done anything quite as satisfying as her brilliant turn as Annie. 33 year old, Annie comes off as mildly retarded, and, in the truest sense of the word, she is, since life pretty well ended at 15. That's when Annie Mary, who wanted nothing more than to be an opera singer, won a vocal competition judged by Pavarotti who told her she would have a marvelous career, and she's given a grant to study in Milan. That same week, her mother took ill, died, and Annie was forced to give up her dreams to stay and take her mother's place in the home. Her father accomplishes his means by humiliating Annie into believing she isn't special, she isn't, in fact, anything at all.As Dad, Pugh, Jonathan Pryce is terrific as. Selfish and cold hearted almost two decades after he's shattered her dreams, the man still berates his daughter calling her talentless, useless, stupid, slovenly and cuts her to her heart laughing at her "what man would ever have you?" He forces her to dress in his own dead mother's shapeless, matronly as he constantly tells Annie how beautiful her mother was. The film opens with Pryce singing Puccini's Nessun Dorma from a mounted speaker system atop his bakery delivery truck as he drives through the Welsh countryside. As the camera pulls in, we see Pugh "The Voice of the Valley" in a rubber Pavarotti mask and wearing an Pavarotti sized tuxedo. Beautiful and hilarious all at once. While not slapstick Griffiths' Annie Mary is prone to extreme clumsiness – often moving (especially when running) like an excited 5 year old, all stiff arms and awkwardness. She's adorable. Clumsiness leads to minor accidents, falls down stairs, running into doors and other objects – each moment is hilarious yet does something to endear this ugly duckling even more to us. When Dad suffers a stroke, Annie Mary is forced to take care of the household – with riotous and disastrous results. The heart of the film centers around Annie's relationship the village and her best friend, Bethan, a bedridden teenager. The village wish for Bethan is to send her to Disneyland. Bethan's only wish is to hear Annie sing. Through an unlikely series of events(including a talent competition, a bouncing Pavarotti, the Village People and the Welsh Grand National Horserace and the entire village turning against Annie) Bethan – and the village – get to hear Annie Mary find her voice again. It is a magical moment blending pathos, forgiveness, hope, heartbreak and Puccini, as Annie Mary finds not only her voice, but the means to carry on. Very Annie Mary is easily one of the most joyous DVD discoveries I've made.p.

When you go see this film, please sit back and relax. This is a fable, a story where, yes, eccentric characters are overdramatized, but anyone that's been to Wales will see just that, the people are very funny. Rachel Griffiths is excellent, as is Jonathan Pryce, as her bullying Welsh father. This is not a US blockbuster, but then again, it wasn't supposed to be. The story has heart, and the one scene where Rachel's character (Annie-Mary) goes up in a balloon in a dance hall was very funny. The accents are hard for folks that don't understand any language other than American-English, but when you see a Liverpool film, a Scottish film, do you expect to understand anything other than the loveable laughable characters? View, sit back, relax..and enjoy the experience of "something different".