1 Day (4 Stars)

I have a weakness for musicals. There's something special about a film when the characters break into song. Most of all I like full musicals, in which all the dialog is sung, films like "Tommy" and "Evita", but I also like half musicals, in which there's only occasional singing. "1 Day" fits into the latter category.

My friends know that I don't like hip hop music, but somehow the music style fits "1 Day". You wouldn't expect the black residents of Handsworth to be singing heavy metal songs. Although I admit, I did once see a group of black youngsters sitting on the bus listening to "Du Hast" on a phone and singing along. It was surreal.

Birmingham is a segregated city. There are areas which are almost completely white, others which are almost completely black, and others which are almost completely Asian. Handsworth, which is where the film takes place, is almost completely inhabited by black people of Caribbean descent. When I lived in Birmingham I was in Small Heath, an area that was divided between Pakistanis and Somalians. They don't like one another. So much for Moslem unity, they even have separate mosques.

I know Handsworth well. I recognise most of the locations. I also recognise the locations used for filming in the city centre. "1 Day" makes me feel nostalgic. I enjoyed living in Birmingham, but I'm also glad that I'm in Germany now. I wish I had a portal so that I could walk from one country to the other any time I like.