@ Cineworld, Edinburgh, Sat 20 Jun & Sun 21 Jun 2015

Kevin Allen / UK / 2015 / 88 min

Kevin Allen directs this lush, colourful rendering of Dylan Thomas‘ famous 1954 depiction of small town Wales. Originally a radio play, this is the first screen adaptation since Richard Burton’s 1972 version, and, pleasingly, it holds its own against such weighty Welsh forbears.

Rhys Ifans narrates, fabulously craggy in face and voice, if a little lighter and less solemn than Thomas himself, with Charlotte Church as local man-eater Polly Garter, just one of the messed-up, curtain-twitching, gossip-guzzling exhibits in the village freak show.

Visually, Wales is made to look at once both a gorgeous, mystical playground and a dank, claustrophobic Royston Vasey. Clouds and fields and sea are shot variously as pure or sinister, and impish special effects allow for sudden leaps of tone both between and within scenes.

The inherent smuttiness of the piece has been judiciously and astutely used, allowed to filter through naturally, rather than sledgehammered at the audience Carry On style. Sometimes it is played up camp, as with the loved-up letter sending couple Mog Edwards and Myfanwy Price (Steffan Rhodri and Nia Roberts); sometimes grotesquely erotic, as in the case of schoolteacher Gossamer Beynon and wannabe suitor Sinbad Sailors (Sara Lloyd Gregory and Bradley Freegard). Either way, it blends seamlessly in with the foibles and peccadillos of village life.

While purists might carp, the visuals add to the piece, illuminating Thomas’ dense words (arranged for the screenplay by Murray Lachlan Young) without disrupting the poetry. Parts are sung – Church’s jazz reminiscence of former lovers is particularly lovely – and music unobtrusively weaves in and out of the film throughout.

In fact, Under Milk Wood only lacks for a couple of performers that can rise above the power of the words and visuals and make their characters their own. Ifans is a class act, not only equal to the task, but aware of what a task it is for a Welshman. A few others are carried along, and could easily be interchanged.

No mean feat then, tackling a modern literary masterpiece, but an English teacher trying to engage a classroom of bored kids with the beauty of Dylan Thomas would do well turning to this.

Showing as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015