I had heard nothing about The Sapphires film until now but it does show that Chris O'Dowd is breaking away from where you thought his career was headed some time ago, a British television comedy star.

There's nothing wrong with that but he's stepping forward to become something of a film comedian, and perhaps a major star if he keeps this up.

However I'm not sure if The Sapphires is going to be hugely helpful for his career but it'll be another step forward at least, perhaps not the huge leap that Bridesmaids has been.

The film has an interesting premise and seems rather an oddly pitched film considering everything else that's around just now, a story about a musical group travelling Vietnam and entertaining the troops but then that's not the full focus of the story as the group are three Australian Aboriginal girls who started signing country and moved to singing soul with the help of a Irishman with a passion for music.

Here's the full blurb for The Sapphires:

1968 was the year the planet went haywire. All around the globe, there were riots and revolution in the streets. There were hard drugs, soft drugs, free love and psychedelic music. There was the shock of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy's assassinations.

And dominating every other news story. There was Vietnam.

For four gorgeous young women from a remote Aboriginal mission, 1968 was the year that changed their lives forever. Sisters Gail, Julie and Cynthia, together with their cousin Kay, are discovered by Dave, a down-on-his-luck Irish musician with attitude, a taste for Irish Whiskey and an ear for Soul Music. Dave steers the girls away from their Country & Western origins then flies them to the war-zones of South Vietnam, where they sing Soul Classics for the American Marines. On tour in the Mekong Delta, the girls sing up a storm, dodge bullets. And fall in love.

Sounds a strange film to be heading to the cinemas but it looks rather good from the trailer. While it's heading around Cannes just now it's set for an August release in Australia and is presumably looking for a larger release.

Here's the trailer from TrailerAddict: