Buster

In interviews and his music videos, singer Phil Collins projects an affable presence; there’s something blue­-collar and likable about this short, balding pop star. Collins had actually been a child actor, but outside of an effective guest shot on Miami Vice a couple of years ago, he hadn’t been tempted by the bug. Until now.

Buster is Collins’ big-screen starring debut, and, like its star, it is amiable and slyly humorous, despite the fact that it is about one of Britain’s most notorious crimes, the Great Train Robbery. Collins plays Buster Edwards, a member of the gang that got away with a huge payroll by robbing a mail train in 1963. Some of the members of the gang were rounded up right away, but Buster managed to elude the authorities for better than three years.

The robbery takes up little of the film’s running time. The screenplay, by Colin Shindler, is more interested in what happens to Buster after he’s flush with cash. Buster and his wife (Julie Walters) hide out in London for a while, then journey to Acapulco to meet another robber (Larry Lamb) and, presumably, spend the rest of their lives in paradise.

The director, David Green, appears to be a talent to watch. In the opening reels in particular, he brings Buster’s world to vivid life. Buster’s a self-described “lucky thief” who generally pulls off little jobs to support his wife and daughter; he steals baby clothes from the neighbors, for instance. He’s a decent provider, even if he does hide behind the couch when the rent collector comes each month.

A lot of the working-class domestic chatter between Buster and his wife early on is funny in an off-kilter way; some of it is even reminiscent of the tone of the early Beatles movies. Collins and Julie Walters, who garnered a best actress Oscar nomination a few years ago for Educating Rita, are well-matched.

Despite the film’s early charm, it simply runs out of things to say. When the couple arrives in Mexico, they show their properly English horror at the sun, tortillas, and drinks with salt. It’s clear immediately that they won’t last, that they’ll give up their freedom and return to England some day, but the movie can’t find new ways of repeating this. Buster contains about half of an entertaining movie.

First published in The Herald, November 26, 1988

Collins is currently undergoing a kind of re-appreciation, so why not consider his big starring shot? His easy screen presence did not lead to a big career in acting, as he mostly stuck with his day job; note that his youthful appearances include being an extra in A Hard Day’s Night and as “Vulgarian Child” in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Director Green didn’t stay that long in directing after this, and seems to be more of an executive now.