Cherie Nowlan’s first feature since Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997) is the kind of well-crafted film that makes you wonder when she’s been this past decade. A comic-drama about a twenty-one year old virgin and his impossible family, Clubland has the requisite humour, pathos, drama and chaos to please audiences and critics alike. Tim (Chittenden) is the glue that holds this coming-of-age-tale-with-a-twist together, but he’s not the one growing up. It’s his overwhelming mother Jean (Blethyn) who has a thing or two to learn.

Tim’s parent’s are entertainers, or at least they were sometime in the mid-70’s. These days they’re divorced; Tim’s dad is a supermarket security guard, his mother works in a factory canteen. But every now and then she gets to tread the boards and remind herself of what could have been before she gave up English stardom for an Australian love affair and its by-product, their disabled son Mark. All of which Tim could cope with blindfolded, if only she would let him get over the hump (metaphorically speaking) of his first serious romance.

Nowlan’s assured direction turns this from simple, cheery entertainment into something altogether more thoughtful. She’s helped considerably by Chittenden’s easy, innocent presence and Blethyn’s cock-eyed hysteria. Emma Booth is on the money as Tim’s girlfriend, terrified by his mother’s increasingly monstrous behaviour. Rounding out the film is Keith Thompson’s script that doesn’t fill in all the gaps, leaving bits of back-story to hang in realistic, tantalising ways – like ‘the Seaworld episode’ which no one wants to revisit. As Jean fights the reality of her sons’ impending maturity, Thompson builds the drama from within to create a credible series of escalating, heartbreakingly funny events. And then the payoff, for what would rom-com be without an upbeat ending? And this Nowlan delivers in clubs.

// COLIN FRASER