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PRISONERS
CAN BE REHABILITATED, ACCORDING TO LUCKY BREAK
 Are
British filmmakers trying to tell the world that prisoners
can be rehabilitated? After the delightful Greenfingers
(2001), we are now treated to the amusing Lucky Break.
After fifteen years of "bad luck," that is, unsuccessful
robberies, Jimmy Hands (played by James Nesbitt) and Rudy
Guscott (played by Lennie James) decide to rob a bank. After
they screw up again, they return to prison, this time for
a five-year sentence. Three penal philosophies are evident.
When Jimmy misbehaves, he is sent to solitary confinement
by prison warden Perry (played by Ron Cook), who does not
believe in rehabilitation. When he is released, Jimmy meets
Annabel (played by Olivia Williams) of the prison support
unit, who tells him that she wants him to be one of the 10
percent who are rehabilitated rather than the 90 percent who
are recidivists. At her class on anger management, however,
Jimmy and Rudy start to fight, so Jimmy goes back to solitary.
When he is released, he meets the prison governor, Graham
Mortimer (played by Christopher Plummer), who loves musicals
and show tunes, and Jimmy discovers on his desk that he has
written a musical, entitled "Nelson" (honoring Lord
Nelson of the Battle of Trafalgar), so Jimmy indicates a similar
interest.
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Later, while trying to devise an escape plot, Jimmy and Rudy
learn that the old chapel would be an ideal place to be, since
the location is closer to the fence and wall to be scaled.
When Jimmy suggests that the prisoners might put on a performance
of a musical honoring an important British hero, the governor
jumps at the opportunity, and rehearsals begin in the old
chapel, with John Toombes (played by Frank Harper) imported
to direct the musical. The preparations for the musical, in
which many prisoners go through personal transformations,
go alongside the escape plans. Among the transformations is
that a love affair develops between Annabel and Jimmy. The
love affair is so powerful that Jimmy helps three of the inmates
to escape, as planned, but he prefers to remain in prison
so that he can win the affection of Annabel, who greets him
with open arms and kisses when he has served his time and
is released. In the epilog we see where the prisoners end
up-some at a Caribbean resort or in Hollywood, peddling maps
of the stars, but Jimmy's cellmate Cliff (played by Timothy
Spall) stays in prison longer and becomes a songbird. Directed
by Peter Cataneo, Lucky Break clearly tells
Californians and others that the three strikes law condemns
to oblivion those who can be rehabilitated and even may make
important contributions to society. MH
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