Movies
Peter's Friends
The British Big Chill, a gathering of all the old gang at the inherited manor of one of them, following the death of his father. Kenneth Branagh, in a hurry to prove he can do anything and everything, has here done something quite different from his Henry V and his Dead Again, but in his great hurry he has perhaps tried to do too many things in just this one thing, ranging (or lurching, rather) from Bergmanesque marital drama to sitcom froth, and gravitating mostly to the latter. One of the parties responsible for that would be stand-up comic Rita Rudner, who makes her screen acting debut and who co-wrote the script with her husband Martin Bergman (not to be confused with Ingmar) and who takes the plurality of the one-liners for herself: "You make Mother Teresa look like a hooker," etc. Branagh's often-cramped visual style has been broadened, too, in the way of elaborately choreographed action in front of a sweeping single-take camera. But he tends to rely overmuch on propulsive background music ("Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Hungry Heart," "What's Love Got to Do with It?" -- and the hits just keep on coming) to carry a scene along. Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Imelda Staunton. 1992.
— Duncan Shepherd
Reader Rating:
- MPAA Rating: R
