In the Loop

In the Loop
April 17, 2009
BBC Films etc.
Comedy
DVD
B

This is a very funny documentary-looking film (but not a mockumentary per se) about British and American politics, with a profanity-laced script, most notably in the lines of Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker.  In fact, some of the funniest lines are funny because of the witty use of profanity.  The humour obviously has faded upon repetition, but it's still a very entertaining movie, with a good solid cast, of whom I will reluctantly single out three:  Steve Coogan as Paul Michaelson ("I'm fucking zen!"), James Gandolfini as Lt. Gen. George Miller (probably the best actor of the bunch, very believable), and Tom Hollander as Simon Foster, a role that, like that in Gosford Park, uses his short height to advantage, so that he's a little man who can't keep up with the "big kids."  If I can't rate the movie higher it's that most of the characters are unpleasant and that does get to be a bit draining after awhile.

Wilde

Wilde
October 17, 1997
BBC (among many others)
Historical, Romance, Drama
DVD
B+

This is an adaptation of the Ellman biography, reviewed here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/search?q=ellman.  Yes, this is certainly a case of the movie being better than the book, helped along by strong performances and uncanny casting.  Witty, gay Stephen Fry (then 40) is of course typecast as the title character, but he also brings out Wilde's vulnerability and kindness.  As Bosie, Wilde's great love, 24-year-old Jude Law brings not just blond beauty but a mixture of arrogance and charm.  (Forgive me, but I kept thinking it was like watching Draco Malfoy's great-great-grandfather.)  Jennifer Ehle, who was perfect as Lizzy in the TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice a couple years earlier, somehow manages to play Wilde's wife Constance without making her a saint and shows us why Oscar did in some sense always love her.  I also must mention Michael Sheen as Robbie Ross, who matures from Wilde's first seducer to a true friend.  (Sheen would go on to the scenery-chewing role of Aro in the Twilight series, which I've watched for the lulz but don't own.)

If the movie has any weakness, it is that there is so much focus on Wilde's love life and not enough on his writing.  Still, there is enough of his works, particularly The Selfish Giant (which becomes a motif for the conflict between his family life and his "nature," i.e. homosexuality), that I can tag Wilde.  (I suppose Wilde was arguably bisexual, but much more oriented towards men.)  Needless to say, this movie is much more explicit than In & Out was, although never pornographic.  However, unlike the Kevin Kline movie, it does end tragically, because Wilde's life ended tragically.

Tom Wilkinson, who's quite good as Bosie's father the Marquess of Queensberry, played a very different father, Mr. Dashwood, in Sense & Sensibility.  Ironically, Gemma Jones is again playing his wife (well, ex-wife here), although they don't have scenes with each other in either film.  She would become Madam Pomfrey in the Harry Potter series, while Zoe Wanamaker, who plays Wilde's supportive friend Ada Leverson, nicknamed the Sphinx, would be Madame Hooch in the first Potter film.

Peter's Friends

Peter's Friends
November 13, 1992
BBC
Comedy, Drama
VHS
B+

This is sort of an autobiographical film, in that the cowriters Rita Rudner (who plays Carol) and Martin Bergman are married and he's British and she sometimes felt out of place with his friends from university.  And much of the cast, including director Kenneth Branagh (who plays Andrew, Carol's husband), met at Cambridge and remain friends to this day.  Branagh was then married to Emma Thompson (who plays Maggie), and Thompson's mother plays housekeeper Vera.  Hugh Laurie (Roger) and Stephen Fry (Peter) were such good friends that they would often team up on television shows together at the time.  Even Tony Slattery, who's appearing as outsider Brian, was at Cambridge.  Oh, and there are lots of Harry Potter and/or Jane Austen points on this one, but I'll get to all that in later reviews, except to say that Laurie and Imelda Staunton (here as Mary) would again play a married couple.

This discussion of the "incestuous" background is not out of place.  The movie is about bonding and quarreling and flirting in a tight-knit group, and how (not) to deal with outsiders.  It is a witty if sometimes crude movie, very quotable (especially Andrew's lines).  The drama sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, but the film never ceases to be watchable, which is saying a lot for something that is almost solely dialogue.  The cast works well together (with Thompson probably the stand-out), although I will say that Slattery fan though I was and am (it was a pretty big thrill to see him be both goofy and naked), his later scenes don't really work.  Also, the script is a bit cliched and Peter's big reveal (at midnight on New Year's) doesn't pack the wallop it did twenty some years ago.

But there is an added poignancy, seeing the cast when they were relatively young (mostly mid 30s).  When I first saw the movie at 24, I couldn't relate to the feeling of not having accomplished all you'd imagined in your youth.  And I laughed my head off at the opening credits, seeing all those faces of '82 to '92 (yes, including Salman Rushdie), while now it's a time capsule, no longer a look at the recent past.  Similarly, the soundtrack was then filled with the hits of a few years before, and now (while still as good as ever) it is more definitely golden oldies.  In short, the movie doesn't mean what it did before, but then nostalgia never does.

Remembering