Comfy, Cozy Cinema: Fishermen’s Friends

For October and November, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy or comfy movies, and some of them will have a little mystery, creepiness, or adventure added in. You can find out about the other movies we watched by searching Comfy, Cozy Cinema in my search bar at the right.

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This week our movie was Fisherman’s Friends, a heartwarming story about a group of fishermen who sing sea shanty songs and are discovered by an agent for record labels.

I watched it on Amazon, but it is available other places as well.

The movie is loosely based on the true story of a real band and takes place in Port Isaac, Cornwall in 2010.

The movie starts with a group of fishermen singing on a boat in the ocean.

We meet the characters a little bit on their boat and in their favorite pub and inn. We also see them getting ready to sing and one of them (Jago, a bawdy older man) with his wife.

Then we switch to a stag party for a man and one of the friends who is supposed to be going to it with him waking up late.

That friend is Danny and as we watch he seems to be a bit of a mess.

The four men decide to stay near a fishing village where the one friend is supposed to rent a yacht for them all to go on. That trip gets canceled.

Fortunately for the story, the men end up staying in town and renting boogie boards to go out in the water together instead. It’s while out on the boards that they get stranded and the fishermen we met in the beginning have to rescue them.

The fishermen are a rough and tumble group of men’s men. They’re fishermen and also the local rescue squad – rescuing people who are stranded in the water. All the men are just trying to make ends meet but on the weekends they gather along the beach and sing Sea Shanty songs for the local residents.

It turns out Danny and his friends pitch new artists to record labels. Danny and his friends see the men singing along the edge of the ocean and while standing there Danny’s friend, who is also his boss, thinks it will be funny if he tells him he wants him to sign the group to a record deal.

Danny is very doubtful, but he launches in to trying to sign the group, but they say ‘no’ and think the whole thing is ridiculous.

But, two of the members tell him, if he can convince the lead singer Jim to do it then maybe they’ll consider letting him pitch their music to a producer

Danny thinks that this is a serious challenge so he decides to do anything he can to sign the band, including joining them on their fishing boat where he promptly shows what a city slicker he is and gets seasick.

Jim doesn’t want to agree to sign a contract to have the music pitched because he doesn’t trust Danny

Rowan, though, points out that they could use any shot at this point because most of them are hurting for money.

Jim agrees with him to take the risk, but is still very leery.

Things get complicated when Danny gets all ten men to agree to sign and record a demo because that is when his boss tells him it was all a prank. His boss has no interest in a group that sings Sea Shanty he says, so come back home and forget it all.

Danny has a problem, though, because he’s already promised Jim he won’t betray the group after Jim gives him a speech about how their word is their word in port Isaac and they don’t go back on it.

Danny promises he won’t go back on it and worries he will have to now that his bosses isn’t really interested.

Now Danny has to record a demo and sell it to a company on his own. It’s not only for the men who he is developing a deep affection for, but because he’s starting to fall for Jim’s daughter Allwyn.

Danny is determined to finish the demo and send it out to record companies, ignoring his boss who says the joke is over and to get back to work.

I should add that I think the boss is an American. You know us Americans – always the bad guys until someone needs help in a war. (*wink*)

While Danny is working on all of this some of the men are dealing with their own issues, including the pub owner, Rowan, who is about to lose his business. Rowan is hoping that if the band is successful then maybe the pub won’t have to be sold. Danny warns him that the band won’t take off as quick as he needs so he should sell the pub and help his family.

Danny sets up a deal to sell the pub to someone he knows and – that doesn’t end so well and the men feel betrayed.

In the meantime, he lands a photography job for Allwyn at a wedding where the group can also perform.

Unfortunately, they miss the performance, which would have been in front of some big movers and shakers in the business, because they are rescuing someone who is stranded in the ocean. A few of the men do show up at the reception and, well, they bomb the performance. The boss tells Danny to get rid of them. Danny refuses. The boss starts calling record companies and telling them to ignore Danny.

“My former boss has been trying to sabotage you,” Danny tells the men when he catches them at the pub.

“What do you mean your former boss?” Jago asks.

“I quit,” Danny tells them.

“What did you go doing that for?” Jago asks, clearly angy.

“Because I believe in you and I believe in the music.”

And so Danny takes the men to the city to try to get them a deal. That all falls apart but – well, that’s where I will leave off my recap because I think I’ve given you enough to make you want to watch the film.

The music in this movie is beautiful.

The characters are charming.

The scenery is beautiful.

The story is touching and emotional in all the right ways (though some hard ways too).

It is the whole cozy package for a movie night.

Just be warned you will need tissues for at least one scene and that there are a couple of bawdy jokes from the men, so I will warn you of that, but it is still free of strong swearing, sex, or violence.

The real group’s music is a bit rowdy with some off-color themes at times as well.

Incidentally, the movie was filmed in Port Isaac where the men were and are from.

The real Fisherman’s Friends are still performing, though one of the men and their stage manager were killed in 2013 in a tragic backstage accident.

A follow-up to the first movie has been released as well. Fisherman’s Friends: One and All is available on streaming services. I watched the trailer and it looks like one I’ll watch in the future.

The man who was killed, Trevor Gillis is featured in the video I am sharing below. He had a beautiful voice as I discovered as I listened to their songs last night.

You can read about Erin’s impressions of the movie on her blog.

Next week and the following week, Erin and are taking a break from Comfy, Cozy Cinema and will start a Cozy Christmas feature December 1. We will share a bit about that and how you can get involved in a future post.

If you watched Fishermen’s Friends and want to share your post please link below. This link is for those who have watched the movies with us and written about them only. The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot link will be up on my blog tomorrow.