Plenty

Rating:
Summary: "There will be days and days and days like this"
Review: "Plenty" is a film destined to arouse a lot of controversy -- not over its quality, but over its heroine: Susan Traherne (Meryl Streep), an Englishwoman who worked with the French Resistance in World War II and, much to the consternation of those around her, longs for the thrills and passion she felt during those days. Restless, dissatisfied and determined to challenge and change society, Traherne rubs employers, acquaintances, and even her husband the wrong way in her quest for satisfaction.

Yet screenwriter David Hare, adapting his successful stage play, asks us to accept and identify with Traherne, a steadfast individualist whose striving and scheming cost her everything, including, finally, her sanity.

Much of the attraction -- not to mention the challenge -- of "Plenty" lies in trying to rationalize Traherne and her motives and motivations. When first seen, she is a young woman who has arrived in France to aid the Resistance movement. Although only 19 years old, she is in a position of power and a situation fraught with danger, and she loves it. After the war, she returns to England, full of high ideals about building a better world where everyone can flourish. But what she finds in her homeland instead is a nation of men and women who are far more concerned with getting back to normal, and satiating themselves in material goods after years of wartime shortages.

For Susan, the postwar world of plenty is distressingly devoid of thrills, goals and open minds. Her feelings of emptiness lead her to seek out bohemian and beatnik friends, a foxy lower-class lover and a husband whose career in the diplomatic services is on the rise. But flirting with danger and accumulating wealth are not the answer for Susan either, and she languishes in luxury.

The role of Susan is custom-made for Streep and she turns in yet another tour de force. Classy and vivacious one moment, scathing and bitter the next, Susan is genuinely a puzzlement, and certainly an addictive one. You may not like her, but you will not forget her.

There is no shortage of fascinating characters in the supporting cast either, nor of fine actors to play them. Singer-comedian Tracey Ullman is enchanting as Alice Parke, Susan's roommate and confidante. Alice wears men's clothes, smokes marijuana and aspires to be a writer and artist, but little things like bad pot keep getting in her way: "How am I supposed to find artistic inspiration if I can't even get any good drugs?" she complains. Sting, who too often relies on his looks to carry his performances, turns in his best screen work to date as Mick, a black-marketeer whom Susan hires to get her pregnant (the love scenes between Sting and Streep are both funny and sexy). But finally, Susan dismisses him after 18 months of trying. "There comes a point at which the experiment should be stopped in the name of common courtesy," she notes.

As Susan's weary husband, Charles Dance brings life to what could easily have been a one-dimensional part, effectively conveying the toll a marriage built on pity can take on a man. Sir John Gielgud also sparkles as the duty-minded Leonard Darwin, whose run-in with the defiant Susan at a dinner party is the nastiest and most uproarious scene in the film.

"Plenty" is not an easy movie to categorize, and interpretations of its central character and its message are sure to be numerous. But there is no denying its power or the allure of the people in it. There are lighter, more charming films around, but there are few as ultimately rewarding.

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Summary: Underappreciated film best captured on widescreen DVD
Review: "Plenty" is one of those troublesome movies, expertly executed, but with difficult themes that many movie-goers will avoid. Meryl Streep is once again amazing--mastering another accent--while making it hard to keep your eyes off this prickly, complicated character--from her days as a girl in the French resistence to her slow unraveling as she finds no passion to fill the void left after the war. But there are also masterful supporting performances from Tracy Ullman, Charles Dance, Sam Neil, Ian McKellan, John Geilgud and--yes--Sting. The complex themes and social commentary are serious and the ample humor, dark and biting. Unfortunately, this film was NOT available in letterbox format for sometime and some wonderful scenes are ruined in that format: mostly notably a moment in which Streep and Sting "do it" under perverse circumstances on a sofa while Elizabeth II's coronation plays on the telly in the background. The hilarious juxtaposition is lost on the squashed screen. The film also makes great use of sound--the sound of opening parachutes is echoed again and again throughout the film, but largely lost because the cut-down visual context is gone. Even some of the reviews of the film when it initially opened commented on its excellent use of the widescreen frame. So... make sure you buy or rent a video/DVD version that has a wide-screen option. The performances alone make this a movie well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Typicall Meryl Streep-movie...
Review: ...and to be honest I hated it. She has that dramatic face in every movie, it always looks as if she's going to burst into tears or something - so she's mostly just fit, it seems to me anyway, for these tragic "no hope for mankind"-movies. Plenty is a movie so Britain-grey that you should never watch it on a day you feel tired or something, you'll only get deeply depressed. And do not misunderstand me, I am no fan of shallow comedies, I'm moved by actors like Hopkins in Shadowlands and Penn in Dead Man Walking - but the woman Streep plays in this movie, well, how many women could identify themselves with her? What is Plenty trying to tell us?

Two stars for Stings' effort as Mick in the movie. Not a big role, but his character has "sex" with Streep - and is basically used by her. And finally Mick is the first to call her character "insane" if I remember right. Big Deal? No, but I am a big fan of Sting - therefor let me add : Are you a Sting-fan, add this to your Sting-dvd-collection.

But watching the movie is pain!

Rating:
Summary: A Mackerel Sky
Review: Being the huge Meryl Streep fan that I am, I've seen this film over 20 times, but never before in its original widescreen format. So I was pleasantly surprised to realise how much I had missed when I had first watched it in the full-screen format. I think it's going to take me a further 20 viewings to take it all it!

Rating:
Summary: Plenty - as it should be seen
Review: Being the huge Meryl Streep fan that I am, I've seen this film over 20 times, but never before in its original widescreen format. So I was pleasantly surprised to realise how much I had missed when I had first watched it in the full-screen format. I think it's going to take me a further 20 viewings to take it all it!

Rating:
Summary: Streep is Fantastic, DVD in Widescreen
Review: I love this Meryl Streep movie. It's so dreamy. The direction is wonderful, especially the sound-motifs of zippers and parachutes opening. Streep's character has fond remembrances of the war when you could meet someone for an hour and feel as if you've know them all your life. She cannot reconcile that with the stuffiness of "modern" Brits. The DVD does have a widescreen option, which is a great way to view this film, as the director has some very nice widescreen compositions.

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Summary: MERYL'S BIGGEST BOMB
Review: I rate this and "Impromptu" (and also maybe "The Piano") as films that are so impressed with themselves and their supposed pedigree they don't have to "work", and the results are a rather tedious series of costumes, pictures, statements and events. Maybe it was the creator's intent, but at the end of this movie you don't give a crap about this egomaniacal woman and her emotional patchwork of a life; just on the two hours you'll never get back having endured this drivel.

Rating:
Summary: A Mackerel Sky
Review: Meryl Streep gives a magnificent performance in this poignant film of a woman forever stuck in a moment in time. Director Fred Schepisi (Roxanne, The Russia House) crafted this mesmerizing film from David Hare's play, who wrote the screenplay. What if there was a moment in our lives when we were truly alive, when we had prupose? What if in that moment we cherished an hour or two of kindness from others and saw the very best of them? Could we move on to a 'normal' life and be happy, or give happiness to others? Those are the questions explored in this engrossing film.

Susan Traherne (Meryl Streep) is a young British woman in France during WWII. She is part of the French Resistance, her life in constant peril as she waits on paratroopers in the French countryside. It is a life fraught with danger but with brief moments of intense pleasure. She shares one such moment with Lazar (Sam Neill), who must leave with only a tip of his hand to let her know what their short time together has meant. He leaves her a momento she carries with her all through the film as a remembrance that comes to represent a better time in her life.

Susan finds life after the war stifling. There are no enemies to fight against except the great promise of the world after WWII that is slowly dying and her own restlessness, which causes her to go from job to job and man to man. Tracy Ullman gives a wonderful performance as her friend and delightful free spirit Alice. Alice knows her impatience for fools and her tendency to speak her mind in a post war world of convention is a part of her spirit that others want to smother. She always brings her back to that spirit in her that the world is trying to crush.

Streep gives a sympathetic and heartbreaking performance as a woman who may not be able to find happiness as she is forever trapped in time. She perfectly captures the ache in her heart that leads to a breakdown of sorts and an attempt to live a life of convention with Diplomat Raymond (Charles Dance) in England and Jordan. Sting has a brief but important role as Mick, who she uses in an attempt to have a child that goes awry because he can feel and she can not.

When she finally meets Lazar again she has lost everything once more, perhaps for the last time. The shifts in time during the course of this film are not distracting at all but part of a heartrending mosaic painted in lush detail by the wonderful Streep. As she says tearfully at one point to Alice, "I want to change things, I just don't know how".

The final shots of Susan standing on a bridge and remembering a moment after the war in France are terribly sad. Susan is standing in a field of great beauty talking to a Frenchman about going home to England to improve the world. Streep has never been more beautiful than in this shot, her face and her spirit full of love and hope. "There will be days and days like this", she says with joy. It is truly moving.

The London Symphony Orchestra magnificently plays a score that itself is subtle and poignant and adds greatly to the mood of this wonderfully consructed and thoughtful film from Fred Schepisi, who would work with Streep once more in "A Cry in the Dark". This is a beautiful and hearbreaking journey into a life of disillusionment. Streep makes Susan a sympathetic and tragic casualty of war you will never forget. This is a film you must see....

Rating:
Summary: Well-acted but somewhat disappointing
Review: Meryl Streep plays a restless and unhappy woman in the aftermath of World War II, in which she played an exciting part in the French Resistance. Her affair with Sam Neill is a memory that renders her discontent with her present life. Tracy Ullman and Sting offer very good supporting performances as Streep's friend and lover, respectively. Streep is her usual terrific self, but there is a cold and artificial element to her performance that leaves the viewer feeling unsatisfied. END

Rating:
Summary: Powerful allegory
Review: One of Meryl Streep's more overlooked films, "Plenty" is a brilliant allegory about the false and empty promises of war, consumerism, and priorities of the western world in the later half of the 20th century. As Susan Trahere, Streep delivers another knockout performance as a woman slowly coming unglued as she realizes the idealism that led her to be a part of the French resistance in World War II has been ignored by a society drifting toward complacency. The supporting cast are all excellent as well with Tracy Ullman as Streep's bohemian best friend, Sam Neil as her wartime lover, and John Gielgud as the career diplomat she humiliates being the standouts. "Plenty" is not always a very accessible film, but one with many rewards for the patient viewer. END