4.3.2.1.

THRILLER; 1hr 57min

STARRING: Tamsin Egerton, Ophelia Lovibond, Emma Roberts, Shanika Warren-Markland


Troubled waters: from left, Egerton, Lovibond, Roberts and Warren-Markland

Cassandra (Egerton), Shannon (Lovibond), Joanne (Roberts) and Kerrys (Warren-Markland), London girls and close mates caught up in daily dramas, are about to be entangled in a big one when, in a fit of pique, spray-can street artist Shannon steals a container of Pringles from the mini-mart where American import Joanne works. Inside the container is a bag of stolen diamonds, which unpleasant people are after.

 

Shannon is a little girl lost, inclined to vodka and self-pity. Cassandra is dolly and leggy with extreme online romantic worries and a New York piano audition to get to. Kerrys is a limber gay girl. Co-directors Noel Clarke (who wrote the script) and Mark Davis have a fine time with that in the same way they have a fine time with the thrasher theatrics of this soft-core spree, in which skimpy threads and coltish pins share screen space with pops of violence, outrageous permutations and four pivotal points of view. At its slickest, 4.3.2.1. is a comic-strip kick. But by the time it swings into the home straight, the plasticised rush is losing its lustre.