In this otherwise engaging film, the speech by the female actors is disturbingly anachronistic. Their speech sounds like generic end-of-the 20th century American: rushed, slurred, decreasing volume and clipped or swallowed at the end of their sentences. The film is set in California, but long before Valley Girl became Hollywood movie standard. Contrast this with Mullan's "accent." The interpersonal communication, especially in the more casual dialog, displays a distinctly late 20th century urban/suburban attitude. This seems like a directorial problem, an attempt to produce a natural/"naturalized" immigrant speech which only a great UK actor like Mullan can do, while the others, from their European roots, have only the accents and speech patterns they absorbed in 20th century California and environs to fall back on (another IMDb commentator half humorously suggested that this regression was due to the very cold weather during the shoot).
