Jan Dunn's multi-character narrative spans three people living in Margate, England. Helen (McLynn) is a put-upon grandmother, forced to fend for her live-in daughter's (Dunstone) baby and please her moody husband Paul (McGann).The only life she has outside the house is a night shift in ASDA and her sculpting class. Paul's carpeting job isn't going well and he takes it out on his family and anyone else who comes near - including his daughter's friend Tasha (Sirene).A Czech Republic refugee, Tasha has finally gotten off the game and is now attending college, hoping that her husband and her father wont find her in the sleepy town. The three narratives are loosely connected and Dunn treats us to glimpses of previous scenes from the perspective of the character's story - not an original idea in itself - but the director does keep the three individual stories coming at enough pace to keep you reasonably entertained. The problem is that the story, as a whole, isn't strong enough. McGann's plot, sandwiched between McLynn's and Sirene's, sticks out like a sore thumb and really doesn't have any relevance in the grand scheme of things. The performances on show are the best thing about Gypo. All involved deliver the goods; the arguments and the family have a genuine enough feel for them to work, and the adoption of the Dogme principles add to the realism/documentary feel. But anyone will struggle to care what happens to any of them and the ending, which ties in two of the stories, further eliminates McGann's input from the equation.
