Let's nip this in the bud. This movie is not about vacuuming nude. Yes, there are some exposed breasts at one point, but that's it. I'm sure if you keep looking though, you'll find some sort of nude mundane activity DVDs. This, is about as far from mundane as you can get, thanks to Danny Boyle.

Danny Boyle is a master of middle-lower-class suffering. The man behind Trainspotting and Shallow Grave can portray people struggling to get by better than most directors. So when he takes on the plight of vacuuming cleaner salesmen trying to make a buck off those with less than them, you know we're going to get one solid film.

Vacuuming While Completely Nude in Paradise is one of a pair of films Boyle made on the cheap for the BBC back in 2001. Shot on digital, this is the story of Pete (Michael Begley, "Bob and Rose"), a directionless young man who wants to be a DJ, but instead makes money pimping out his girlfriend Sheila (Katy Cavanagh, "Dalziel and Pascoe") for strip-o-grams. The movie opens with one of her "dances," at a retirememnt party for a vacuum cleaner salesman, which is shot in a way that shows how dank these people's lives are. It's not sexy--its simply sad.

When an opening at the company gives Pete a chance to make some money and keep Sheila from stripping, he grabs it. He could have made a better choice. Learning on the job, he is teamed with Tommy Rag (Timothy Spall, Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket), who is shooting to be the top vacuum salesman of the year, and doesn't want to be saddled with this no-nothing rookie.

In making this movie, Boyle and screenwriter Jim Cartwright have created one of the all-time worst villains in Tommy Rag. In a word, he's disgusting. He's a vile excuse for a human being, a man with no morals, hygeine or life outside of selling. He'll sell ice to Eskimos and then try and sell them rock salt a minute later. Living out of his car, he's a horrible person, and worse, he's a corpulent dynamo, always moving, always yelling. He's the illegitimate son of Fat Bastard and Gordon Gekko.

The film moves at a frenetic pace, helped by the crew's ability to put the digital camera whereever they want, achieving a stylistic look that's pure Boyle. No, there are no babies crawling on the ceiling, but it's still a treat for the eyes. It becomes obvious as the film moves forward that this was the training ground for Boyle's major digital film, 28 Days Later, as there are several shots that look very similar to scenes in that zombie film. Going through and trying to find where Boyle was workshopping the digital camerawork opens the film up to additional viewings for those interested in the technical side of filmmaking.

This movie is overwhelmingly British (after all, it's from the BBC) but the concepts of greed, desparation and despair are universal, so it shouldn't be too hard to follow along. And even if you find your interest in the ins and out of door-to-door selling waning, the visuals alone should carry you through to the next big moment. But be warned, it's hard to lose focus when you've got the round mound of commerce's motivational techniques blasting you in the face. You may just find yourself sold on this movie.

THE DVD

The disc was done completely in widescreen, from menus to features. The menus are bright and colorful, with transitional animation. There are options for scene selection, audio set-up, extras and an on-line link to Koch Vision. The scene selections are spread over two screens, with a still for each. The audio is available in Stereo and Surround versions.

THE QUALITY

Boyle shot this TV movie on video, and you get the best and the worst of it here. The color levels are all over the place, the video is gritty and grainy, and there's plenty of wash-out when the light gets too bright. It gives it a very in-the-moment real feel, which is exactly what seems to be Boyle's goal. The film is a low-budget smudge, despite being encoded at a high average of 6 Mbps, so there was no helping the source material.

You get two choices here, with 2.0 and 5.1 soundtracks available. The 5.1 is more active than the 2.0, with plenty of dynamic use of the sound field. There are some problems with the surround track, as some scenes (particularly the exterior driving scenes) see the sound become muted, only to pop back in. These sound changes aren't evident in the 2.0 mix, but you can't be sure that Boyle didn't mean for this to happen in the "theater" mix. I guess that's the benefit of the doubt you get when you're an artist like Boyle.

THE EXTRAS

The extas here are limited, and not really related to the main feature. A trailer for Vacuuming... is included, along with previews for "Manchild," Janice Beard, 45wpm, Very Annie-Mary, Intimacy and Sister My Sister. There's also a photo gallery of stills from Vacuuming... and a promo for "The Office." Boyle tends to be involved in his film's DVDs, so this must have been a very low-budget effort.

THE WRAP-UP

Vacuuming... is a distinctly British film by one of the most visually creative directors working today. Watching it, knowing that it's a made-for-TV movie tells you everything you need to know about the difference between American and British culture. There's nothing like this being made for American TV, so thanks needs to go to BBC America and the DVD medium for bringing films like this to the New World. A combinaion of Trainspotting, Charles Dickens and Dante's Inferno, this movie fluctuates between comedy and drama. It's very unique and, in the end, a very entertaining look at how much your life could suck (pun unintended...though I wish it was).

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.