Jean lives with her two sons, Tim (Richard Wilson) and Mark (Khan Chittenden). Mark’s a little slow, but does pretty well for himself; he just needs a bit of watching. Tim helps to hold the family together – he has a moving van he uses to make money, drives his mother to her club jobs, watches Mark, and basically has no life of his own. And, Jean seems just fine with that; we learn as the film unfolds that she’s driven away at least one previous girlfriend. And when Tim meets Jill (Emma Booth) and starts to get involved with her, Jean is not happy. She treats Jill badly whenever they meet and constantly complains to Tim about not having his full attention.
Besides Jill, the only other person Tim can turn to for some sympathy is his dad, Jean’s ex John (Frankie J. Holden). John’s also a sometime entertainer; in his case, his talent is singing, where he was a one-hit wonder but still working the circuit from time to time. His “real” job is security guard at a grocery store. Jean blames him for having moved her to Australia from England (where she’s sure she’d be a major star). John blames himself for that some, too, but Australia was supposed to be his big chance.
Jean and John are similar in that they both believe their next big break is just around the corner. But when Jean gets what looks to be her chance and bombs miserably, she goes over the edge. Watching a self-deceiver descend into self-doubt is pretty powerful, particularly when the actor portraying the range of emotion is as accomplished as Blethyn. I found Introducing the Dwights very enjoyable in parts, but also very painful to watch at times. I hesitate to call it a comedy, but it’s more comedic than anything else.
The disc carries both widescreen and full-screen formats. Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround in English only. Subtitle options are English, French and Spanish. There are no special features, which is too bad, because I would have liked to hear Blethyn talk about Jean.
Introducing the Dwights has some very strong characters and the acting is outstanding. As noted above, it’s not an easy film, but it is an interesting one.