REVIEWED - ON A CLEAR DAY: THE redoubtable Peter Mullan vividly captures the despair of Frank, a 55-year-old Glasgow shipyard worker who feels cast adrift when he is made redundant in Gaby Dellal's first feature film.

Just as his cinematic antecedents in The Full Monty find a new vocation as strippers, Frank, a proud and stubborn man, sets himself the challenge of swimming the English Channel.

On a Clear Day represents a rather more modest achievement, but its heart is in the right place and it is significantly bolstered by a solid cast that includes Brenda Blethyn as Frank's patient wife, Jamie Sives as his estranged son, and Billy Boyd, Sean McGinley and Ron Cook as his motley crew of trainers. The warm camaraderie between Frank and his closest friends is palpable and engaging in this socially concerned film that lacks the robust dramatic power of Ken Loach's work or the recently released Mondays in the Sun.

A grating scene involving a character named Merv the Perv would not have been out of place in a 1970s Confessions comedy, and while much is made of Blethyn's attempts to pass her test as a bus driver, the only time we ever see her in a bus is when she emerges from the driver's seat - wearing stilettos.