Bright Young Things

Rating:
Summary: A high society satire that isn't venomous enough
Review: Anglophiles among will probably find much to admire about Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things, there's some witty dialogue, some nice English scenery, and lots of supporting characters that are either batty and eccentric, or rich and idle. Set in the 30's era, pre-world war II London, the movie centers on the wealthy, chattering classes, and the effects of love and money on them - they've obviously got lots of time on their hands, there's endless rounds of "dress up" partying, drug taking, booze, and gossiping. But nothing lasts forever of course, and the advent of the War, puts an end too much of this hedonistic frivolity.

The film's title not only refers to this bright and beautiful period in England, but also to a novel being written by its main character, Adam Fenwick-Symes (Stephen Campbell Moore). Adam hopes that the publication of his work will bring him fame and fortune and he will be able to marry his wealthy fiancé Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer). While sailing to London to meet Nina, a surly customs inspector seizes his manuscript, and he finds himself nearly penniless. But the well-connected Nina gets him a job working as a newspaper gossip columnist for an American publisher (Dan Aykroyd). In order for Adam to keep his job, Nina helps him forge to a plan to write columns containing fake gossip about the parties they attend.

Of course nothing is ever this straight forward and Adam finds himself getting mixed up with all sorts of tomfoolery involving Nina's batty old father (Peter O'Toole) and an elusive old drunkard (a brilliant Jim Broadbent) who purports to have won Adam a slight fortune at the races. This is all jolly good fun, except it's the supporting characters, which ironically, provide the more interesting stories. Adam hangs out with several young high society types: The daft, coke snorting Agatha (a wonderful Fenella Wollgar who steals the show), the campy, effeminate Miles (Michael Sheen), and the pompous Ginger Littlejohn (played by David Tennant) Each of these players shamelessly steals nearly every scene they're in.

Bright Young Things is a pleasant enough experience, and Fry does a sound job of recreating the delirious atmosphere of the era. But the film ultimately has a kind of weird, vacuous quality to it; it's fun to watch while your there, but you'll remember very little about it afterwards. The movie, at the end of the day, sinks under the weight of sallow, uninspiring, and lackluster social observations, and it isn't nearly as cutting-edge, witty and provocative as it could be. Mike Leonard November 04.


Rating:
Summary: All Parade and No Circus
Review: Everyone who loves British wit and acerbic satire knows the writing of Evelyn Waugh and the acting and wit of Actor/Director Stephen Fry: the idea of Fry adapting Waugh's raucous campy vamp of England in the 1930s seems like the perfect fit. In many ways it is - in particulars, but alas not in the totality of the work that resulted in this vacuous film.

While the camera work is endlessly interesting, it does often upstage the point of the story. Or maybe that is part of the problem with this colorful film - its lack of point. BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS tackles the class structure of England in a bit heavily one-sided foray, leaving us with the feeling that all of England's young folk prior to WW II were party people with little else on their minds than garish flamboyant stupefying parties...and the importance of having money. Manipulation of the gentry, the willy-nilly ups and downs of serendipitous fortunes, and the self indulgent morals of the characters that populate this story seem to be Fry's gleaning of the Waugh text.

Not that this is a bad movie: this is as colorful, darkly witty study of the shallow life of the times and the dialogue is very funny and very cutting. The actors are all in that rare class of Britain's best: Jim Broadbent, Peter O'Toole, Emily Mortimer, Michael Sheen, Stephen Campbell Moore, David Tennant, Fenella Woolgar, Julia McKenzie, Simon Callow, John Mills (and even adding Stockard Channing!) all are entertaining but each manages to keep his character one dimensional.

I suppose there is a point to this, but though entertained by the film, the point of adapting Waugh's VILE BODIES into this bit of fluff remains nebulous at best. Grady Harp, February 2005

Rating:
Summary: 'Too divine'? Not quite...
Review: Stephen Fry is one of the greatest and most intelligent humorists around; his verbal wit is truly Wildean, and made him a very apt choice to portray that author in the eponymous movie. I expected it would also make him the perfect director to bring this, one of Evelyn Waugh's most sarcastic, even cynical society comedies, to the screen - but found the result somewhat disappointing. It seems the makers of "Bright Young Things" have been overly reluctant to let themselves be swept along by Waugh's absurdities, and were at the same time overly eager to add sentiment and tragedy to the story. Nina Blount is, truly, a detestable little creature (Emily Mortimer's portrayal of her does certainly not invite much sympathy), and the attempts at romanticising her love affair with Adam Symes are completely out of place. Similarly, in Waugh's book the suicide of Lord Balcairn is a thoroughly tragicomical scene; in the movie, the heavyhanded pan along a mantelpiece full of memorabilia that are supposed to make us feel sorry for this character is out of style. The script takes rather damaging and unnecessary liberties with the original text throughout. For instance, while in the book Mrs. Ape's sermon at Lady Metroland's party illicits from Balcairn a fantasy gossip-column describing the guests being overwhelmed by religious fervour and repentance, in the movie this is incongruously turned into a report of a sexual orgy. The queer element, only hinted at in the book, is heavily overplayed and adds a campiness to the overall atmosphere that has more to do with present day Amsterdam or San Francisco than with London in the twenties. And whereas the book ends ominously on `the biggest battlefield in the history of the world', words that were eerily prophetic when they were written (the book was published in 1930!), the film falls into the trap of substituting WW2 for Waugh's indeterminate catastrophe, and worse, attaches a happy ending in which all unfinished business is neatly wrapped up.
The final general impression is of a patchy, stylistically disjointed work that tries to be too many things at once. It pales when compared to the excellent filmed version of A Handful of Dust, let alone the televization of Brideshead Revisited - but then both these books are rather more easy to turn into a filmable script. On top of that, the casting is less then ideal. Stephen Campbell Moore makes a rather unappealing hero, Emily Mortimer is anything but seductive, nor is Fenella Woolgar quite believable as the ' spiritual' leader of the bright young pack. Michael Sheen is downright irrating as an overacted, effeminate Miles Malpractice. The enjoyment that BYT nonetheless offers is in the excellent art direction, and the wonderful acting of some of the secondary characters: Peter O'Toole as the subtly and rather malevolently deranged Colonol Blount for instance, or Jim Broadbent as the equally absurd `drunken Major'. The musical score is quite entertaining as well.


Rating:
Summary: Entertaining--but Waugh would spin in his grave.
Review: Until it goes completely gooey at the end, Stephen Fry's "Bright Young Things" is an entertaining, stylish screen adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's corrosively funny novel, "Vile Bodies." Fry keeps the show moving at a fast clip; he makes the film visually stunning, varying the color schemes dazzlingly from scene to scene with the help of cinematographer Henry Braham and production designer Michael Howells; and if leads Stephen Campbell Moore and Emily Mortimer are a bit bland, Fry nevertheless obtains sparkling supporting performances from Peter O'Toole, Dan Aykroyd, Michael Sheen, and the ineffable Fenella Woolgar. (We even get a few glimpses of the venerable Sir John Mills snorting coke in a party scene.) Unfortunately, unlike Waugh, Fry runs smack into history, and it pretty much totals the last quarter of the movie. Waugh, writing in 1930, had the luxury of creating an unspecified war to end his novel; Fry pointed out in a recent interview that he had no choice but to end the movie with World War II, the war that actually occurred. That's true enough, but he didn't have to give the film a soppy, standard-issue happy ending that runs completely counter to Waugh, the 20th Century's closest equivalent to Jonathan Swift. (Fry actually clues us in early on that he's going to go soft on the material; he changes the name of Michael Sheen's character from the novel's Miles Malpractice--a name straight out of Richard Brinsley Sheridan--to Miles Maitland, thus trying to transform a satirical archetype into a sympathetic character.) Fry--a brilliant actor, writer and wit--makes his film directing debut here, and he shows enough talent to make us eager to see his followup project. But "Bright Young Things," though certainly worth seeing, is a wrongheaded disappointment in the end.