Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Being a Czech myself, I feel kind of about this movie. On the one hand, it is very didactic, simple, sometimes pathetic, but at the same time: Be it so. It is necessary and it does the so-called "job":1.look-at-yourselves-you-sometimes-dumb-and- blind-Brits-it's-never-black-and-white,2.look-at-yourselves-you-damned-Czechs- you're-not-able-to-protect-your-citizens, and the Roma situation in your country is really BAD3.or: cultural diversity is good, everyone has something to contribute with,4.or: not everyone is a money-thirsty economical immigrant.On the other hand, the family background and relations of these "Czech" refugees and their portrayal was something I had to cringe at. Truth is that I was wondering about Sirene's (Tasha's) accent all way long...and, with a great uncertainty, I concluded she must have been Slovak. (I didn't know she was English, so in a way her accent was persuasive, although it def. wasn't Czech) I assumed that her mother (Irina/Rula Lenska) must be Russian or Polish because these couple of words she uttered definitely weren't Czech, rather this Slavic universal mixture. The only Czech sentence she says is "miluju te" which means i love you, which is commonly used in English, but rarely amnong parents and children, rather for lovers. Another thing - Romanies tend to speak Romani language among each other, especially the older generation.However, these are minor details I can overlook. But what the hell was this bunch of guys, both Sub-Carpatian Ukrainian and mafioso like looking, that came after them??? I can't think of a single place in the Czech Republic where gypsies would look anything like it, not mentioning the fact that after 40 yrs of communism there's zero left of their traditional life. I mean Romanies of course have their communities, but a vast majority of them dress like other Czechs. In Gypo even the caravans (altho for refugees) were there to suggest this traditional nomadic life. The way Tasha's mother dressed and decorated herself is rarely seen among the Czech gypsies. If these refugees were from Slovakia or Romania, I would find it more credible.

I appreciate the artistic ambition that went into this film, but it comes out lacking in a number of ways. The subject matter is interesting and some of the acting really quite good, particularly the actress playing the mother. I also felt Tamzin's (daughter's) acting was better than some have given her credit for; she was playing the part of the grouchy teenager and she did it, in my opinion, well. However, here are my gripes, in no particular order: 1. One-dimensional characters, particularly the father. (He basically chomps a piece of gum and simmers with rage for the entire film). The problem didn't seem to be with the acting for the most part; it seemed more as though the plot left no room for nuance in any character except the Roma girl.2. Incredibly cliché dialogue. I'm actually relieved to read the dialogue may have been ad-libbed, because it's painful to think dialogue this trite could have gotten rubber-stamped before it went to the actors. "Did you ever really love me"... "it's over"... "you're an ass"... ugh. For an improvised acting exercise, sure... for a movie that's being screened at film festivals and distributed worldwide? No way.3. Time shifts, as delivered through the film editing, create much more confusion than they do intrigue. They're used at the expense of the tension that *would* build with a more linear editing technique. Some aspects NEVER seem to make any sense-- the continuity errors another reviewer referred to.4. A conclusion that makes you think "Huh? How does that make any sense?" and then, the next day, you're still thinking, "Huh?" The director has not done a good job in making the characters seem truly "backed into a corner" when they need to appear so; instead their choices seem inexplicable.5. Scene after scene, in the first half, in which the mother is on the phone, gracing the viewer with her one-sided, animated phone conversations. I started to feel like I was at a very uncomfortable lunch with a friend who wouldn't stop answering her freakin' phone. The phone dialogue is actually well-done and well-acted; there's simply way too much of it.It's surprising to me that many of these problems weren't noticed, or changed, before the final edit. At the end of the day, a lot of it is a suspension of disbelief problem, and I expect the director was hoping we'd care enough about the film and the subject to just go along for the ride. However, most viewers have a sharper eye than that.

I've given it 2, but even then I find it hard to justify such a high mark. I had high hopes for this film, having read reviews in which it was praised for presenting a refreshing and original take on the refugee/asylum issue. I'm sorry, but for me - a die-hard liberal who should have lapped up its messages - it simply didn't deliver. Stylistically, it was awful to watch: more goofs and blunders and continuity slips than I could count. The script was terrible: it seemed like a middle-class film-maker's idea of how working-class people speak and behave. It sounded like a workshop piece from a creative writing class. The characters didn't work, either. Not a single one of them was remotely believable - just a whole bunch of stereotypes. And despite a stellar cast, the acting was awful - which, I would guess, was largely to do with the direction, and not a little to do with the script. The whole thing failed to move me in any way - except when it came to ejecting the disc and taking it back to the shop.

Just when it seems that cinema has descended yet again into the deep abyss of zero plot combined with tons of special effects performed by pretty boys and pop tarts with no acting abilities whatsoever to disguise the fact that it is trash, something new comes along to uplift the entire sorry state of modern film and restore the discerning audience's faith in the true art of the cinema. I attended just such a performance at the 24th August 2005 premiere screening of Gypo in the UK at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) and found it to be a powerful dramatic piece (the first British one) from the recent Dogme genre of film making. According to its manifesto, Dogme rules reject special effects, scripted and formulaic acting, and films all scenes in ambient light to make the actors rather than post- production additions drive the plot. Told from the points of view of the wife Helen, the husband Paul and the Czech immigrant Tasha, the story of the disintegration of a working-class British family from Margate while encountering newly-arrived refugee immigrants, makes for some gritty, gripping entertainment. As the film covers the same events from three differing points of view, the plot is gradually fleshed out and brought to a most surprising conclusion. Nothing is as it originally appears. Be prepared to be surprised and absorbed completely in the unfolding, many-layered story.Pauline McLynn, usually known for her comedic acting in the UK, gives a tour de force drama performance as the frustrated, ineffective-feeling wife Helen. One feels her frustration when her husband and teenage daughter use her in various ways and make fun of her attempts to find her inner creative self in sculpture classes. When she meets Tasha, we are allowed to see her caring and compassionate side in reaching out for those less fortunate still. Paul McGann portrays the simmering angry, repressed, frustrated breadwinner who hates change yet despises his limited, impoverished, meaningless existence of doing carpet installation day jobs. Alternating between stony silence and lashing out in bigoted epithets at "Gypos" whom he feels (incorrectly) take his jobs, McGann portrays a total bastard with whom one may still feel some sympathy. Perhaps, he might have filled some of the silent scenes with more lines, but his performance was generally quite solid. Relative acting newcomer Chloe Sirene, actually London-born, also gives a fantastic and completely convincing performance as the Romany Czech refugee, Tasha, struggling against ethnic hatred and pursuing male relatives to gain British citizenship, independence, and find her way in an impoverished and hostile area. Even though a teen the age of Helen's daughter, she shows great strength and resilience in the face of great adversity. The supporting cast also give very solid performances that add texture to the developing story line.Hopefully, this excellent film will make its way into American theaters, at the very least the Art Theater circuit, in the next year. This deserving film definitely should be added to everyone's must-see list.