In 2017, the true story of Jamie Campbell, a teenage drag queen, was turned into a poppy, feel-rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent West End musical. With a enormous’vast’massive’tremendous lipsticked grin on its face, E grossly body’s Talking About Jamie told of the teenager’s determination to go to his school prom in a dress, and the school’s insistence that could never happen. It’s a reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue with a few catchy tunes, a lovely message with regards to’concerning’with respect to acceptance, and so much upbeat energy that it’s grossly easy to like. This adaptation is much the same. It lacks the dazzle of the live undergo and lurches around a bit in trying to find a consistent tone, but it has plenty of moments of joy.###The intense’fierce’exquisite est part of the story is the relationship between Jamie (newcomer Max Harwood) and his mum, Margaret (Sarah Lancashire). They adore each other in/with regard to’concerning’regarding exactly who they are. Jamie’s dad left them both many years ago, disappointed his son was not the sports-mad lad he wanted, but Margaret’s love swelled to fill the void. That’s the most developed element of the story, by some distance. The rest of it is sweet, but thinly written.###In his journey to becoming his full self, Jamie is taken under the wing of a retired drag queen (Richard E. Grant, enjoying himself as much as you’d imagine) and goes quickly from staggering to strutting, out and proud. His obstacles (Sharon Horgan as a disapproving teacher; a lack of funds) are minor and the maintain’sustain ing characters mostly one-dimensional, so it’s rather lacking in surprise or depth. There never seems any possibility Jamie won’t succeed or even a reason why he wouldn’t.###If you know and love the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue , this recreates a lot of what was fun with regards to’concerning’with respect to it.###Jonathan Butterell, who directed the London stage reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue , makes his film-directing debut here. He acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s lively, heartfelt perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances across the board, but there are lots of occasions where his instincts still feel stage-bound. The musical sequences are a mishmash of styles. Some possess’own’nurse characters breaking into song as they go through real life, others convert’transform to fantasy and feel more like pop videos. Either choice could work, but convert’transform ing between the two without any apparent rules makes it all a bit messy. You can play with styles more on stage because disbelief is already suspended. On film, a lack of consistent visual language is disorientating. The better musical numbers are those kept in the eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullyday, with Jamie bringing a bit of grubbish’trash to grey days in Sheffield. By far the most effective is Sarah Lancashire singing ‘He’s My Boy’ while simply sitting at a kitchen table. Butterell is smart abundant’ample’plentiful to know that when you’ve got Sarah Lancashire pouring her heart out, you just stand back and watch.###If you know and love the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue , this recreates a lot of what was fun with regards to’concerning’with respect to it, but it could possess’own’nurse used some more character development in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the screen. It’s a musical that has loads of enthusiasm and a rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent heart, but lacks finesse. So, a lot like Jamie, really.