Wish You Were Here

Rating:
Summary: "Up yer bum!"
Review: Film buffs should rejoice that this outstanding little British gem has finally seen the light of day on DVD. David Leland's 1987 comedy-drama about a headstrong 16-year-old girl's "coming of age" in post WW 2 England only played the arthouses upon on its initial run, so remains largely unknown to U.S. audiences. This movie recalls "golden age" British sex comedies like "Georgy Girl", "The Knack", "The Family Way" and "Alfie". Vivacious teenager Emily Lloyd makes an astounding, Oscar-worthy debut as pretty but potty-mouthed "Linda", whose hormone-fueled manic behavior (...) are causing her somewhat reserved widower father and younger sister to walk around in a perpetual state of public embarrassment. With a taut script and precise performances, the film breezes along on a deft roller coaster of deep belly-laugh hilarity and genuine, bittersweet emotion. Excellent support from the entire cast, especially from the great Thom Bell, who finds a sympathetic humanity in a somewhat vile character that a lesser actor could not likely pull off. The real tragedy here is that Emily Lloyd, who displayed such amazing potential in this debut, never really "broke big", appearing in only a few unremarkable projects and then basically dropping off the radar to join that sad "whatever happened to..." file. The DVD transfer is excellent, no extras to speak of, but this wonderful film speaks for itself!

Rating:
Summary: "I was only showing them my new knickers."
Review: The British film "Wish You Were Here" from director David Leyland is set in England in the 1950s. It's the story of Lynda (Emily Lloyd)--a rather unusual and rebellious young girl who never fits into her nice, quiet, respectable, hard-working family. Several incidents from Lynda's childhood demonstrate that she is going to be an outspoken, determined individual, but no-one in Lynda's family seems able to understand her, and she gradually drifts farther apart from the rest of her relatives. After the death of her mother, Lynda is brought up by her strait-laced father who runs a barber/tobacconist shop. He expects Lynda to eventually run the hairdressing half of the family business, but after a brief--and hilarious--attempt as a hairdressing apprentice, Lynda makes it clear that she won't allow anyone to predict or influence her destiny. Lynda's dad is mystified and disgusted, but Lynda's "boring" younger sister--who plans to join the army--fits in quite nicely into the family image. It is Lynda who remains an embarrassment and a complete enigma to her father.

It's clear to the local males in Lynda's small home-town, that she's a bit of a goer, and she's certainly not shy about seeking and getting male attention. Unfortunately, her first sexual experiences leave her feeling emptier than ever, and her attention-seeking rebellion eventually leads her straight to a cynical older man who degrades her even further. Everyone in Lynda's life underestimates her. Men use and discard her, and even her father fails to see beyond Lynda's rejection of established social behaviour--all he feels is shame. Even when Lynda is dragged off to a psychiatrist, he is completely at a loss when dealing with Lynda. The session begins with the psychiatrist in control, but he rapidly finds himself completely outmaneuvered by Lynda when he tries to get her to tell him all the swear words she knows (and she claims her first word was 'bum').

Emily Lloyd was a mere 16 years old when she starred in this film. Her acting is nothing less than superb. Lynda is an intriguing, steely character--bordering on the antisocial--and yet desperate to belong. She is irrepressible--and yet she is completely oppressed by her family. Emily Lloyd manages to portray all the contrasting qualities of this complex role with astonishing maturity and vivacious charm; she is truly delightful. I found myself cheering at Lynda's exploits during many of the scenes as she refuses to bow down to convention and admit defeat regardless of the social consequences.

"Wish You Were Here" is based on the early life of Cynthia Payne--an infamous British madam. No mention of Payne pops up in the film, but the film does serve as a companion piece to the film "Personal Services"--the story of Payne's brothel--which catered to the kinky rich. This is truly a beautiful, thought-provoking, positive film--at times funny, and at other times sad, but always triumphant. Note the director's use of light and windows throughout the film--displacedhuman.

Rating:
Summary: Defiant coming-of-age flick for girls
Review: This film lends courage to girls who sometimes make bad choices. What's wonderful about the ending is that Emily Lloyd's character is still thumbing her nose at the repressed community around her. There's a certain triumph when she declares "yes it's mine, ALL mine" about her newborn baby. Instead of choosing to feel ashamed for having a child out of wedlock, she makes the absolute best of the situation. I highly recommend this film to anyone who has a soft spot in their heart for non-conformity.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This is a great movie nuff said. However I can't believe I bought the dvd version imported from the UK and now it won't work here because its on region 2. AAAAAAHHHGGGGGGGHJJJJJJJsdkfjadsf!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Breath of Fresh Air
Review: This movie is about Lynda, a rather delinquent teenage girl growing up after the the Second World War in a bleak and dismal English seaside town. She spends most of the film getting sacked from one job after another and losing her innocence with considerable thoroughness and determination. Working briefly for the local bus company, she eagerly loses her virginity to a rather clumsy young bus conductor who is not slow afterwards to take his custom elsewhere. Somewhat heartbroken, she tries to cheer herself up by throwing herself at Eric, a much older man who has been making advances, with predictably sad results...

Leland has written and realized a masterly script that is sometimes extremely funny and sometimes desperately sad, shifting between these two with enormous sureness of touch. The best thing about it by miles is Emily Lloyd's performance as Lynda, feisty, immensely funny, sometimes appallingly foolish, sometimes downright obnoxious but somehow always completely adorable, which is nothing short of astonishing in its charm and total believability. Perhaps you agree with me that the coming of age movie can sometimes be a pretty tedious genre where one suspects too many writers turn memories of their not very interesting adolescences into not very interesting stories. If so you might be put off seeing this which would be a terrible shame as this utterly fresh and delightful movie is a glorious exception.

Rating:
Summary: ending ruins it. review includes spoilers.
Review: This was a funny, high-spirited, literate film, but the ending was disgusting and ruined the film for me. Emily Lloyd's character Linda is self-centered, self-absorbed, desperate to be the center of attention at any cost. That's fine as a character study. But in the end she gets impregnated by a wretched, scum bag, dirty-old-man lech. And Linda has the baby, and now that she has total POWER over this baby since she's the poor thing's MOTHER, that's considered some sort of victorious happy ending!!! "I now have control of my fate, yippeee." No, she has control of that baby's fate, which is TRAGIC!! Linda is going to be the most wretched mother for that kid, being, as mentioned, self-centered and self-absorbed. Egomaniacs make terrible parents. And, as with Linda, it's often egomaniacs who want to be parents most, for the control it gives them over a human life. I've known kids with mothers like Linda, and they end up in rehab by age 14. And just on a genetic level, Linda's baby has a bad roll of the dice with the narcissistic mess that is Linda for a mother and that dirty sociopathic lech as its father.

The same ending would have been acceptable if its TONE had been one of TRAGEDY for the unfortunate baby. But to portray the outcome as a "victory" for Linda appalled me.