The Hot Potato

Apparently based on a true story, Tim Lewiston's film is set in 1969 and harks back to the kind of wisecracking crime caper that was then in vogue. The gleefully convoluted plot centres on a lump of uranium that lands in the lap of East London scrap merchant Ray Winstone after being "found" in a burnt-out Ministry of Defence facility by secretary Lois Winstone's dopily dodgy boyfriend (Jack Huston). But flogging the "hot potato" proves easier said than done, as the hapless trio encounters psychotic Irish twins, duplicitous Germans, a sinister G-Man, a ruthless Mossad agent and a glamorous Vatican envoy during an eventful excursion to the continent. Slickly staged and knowingly played by a fine ensemble, this is always highly enjoyable. However, it never quite gathers the momentum that would make its madcap twists and turns seem frantically hilarious rather than just fitfully amusing.