thekarmicnomad
A drunk, washed-up poet is hired to solve a family mystery.The main character is a highly literate pompous old fellow struggling with his own existence.
A lot of the comedy comes from him insulting people using very long words, which I found very amusing.There is not a lot to this movie. Don't expect dramatic plot twists, edge of the seat action, moving performances or fire works of any kind.
But this film achieves what it sets out to do perfectly!This film is gentle, interesting, funny and quite refreshing.This is definitely a Sunday afternoon watch, but for that time slot it is perfect!
Production, acting, script are all exceptional!This film hasn't tried to reach too far and it pays off dividends.Watch this after your Sunday roast with a drink for a perfect afternoon.
Pedant-skewer
I read the reviews but have so far only watched the beginning of the film. I have to agree with cosmix 10 that Fry is marmite to the palate: you either love his or hate him. Sadly I fall into the latter category and cannot abide the man's work and probably wouldn't like him either if we ever met..That said, cosmix 10 needs to learn better use of English. It is: "Might as well have been", or "Might as will've been" but not "Might as well of been". Similarly: "probably could have worked", or "probably could've worked" but definitely not "probably could of worked".I point out these things not just because I am a pedant, (which of course I am)but for your own good. Fry will read your review and laugh at you as an uneducated numbskull. If you want to really upset him, then write grammar as good or better than his own.As for the Hippopotamus? Given that the homoerotic bath scene at the beginning, was followed almost immediately by the homoerotic stage play immediately afterwards, this somehow tells me it is probably not a film for me. (PS to Fry: The reference to the 1980 stage play "The Romans in Britain", with its famous homosexual rape scene that provoked a law suit from Mary Whitehouse, was not lost. However, you may be surprised to hear it, but most people in Britain and America are not gay. Hence your film bombed even if you thought such references were clever. Pleas learn from your mistakes).
begob
A clapped out poet brings his powers of perception to an English country house acclaimed for its miraculous cures, and finds more than he bargained for ...Lovely doff of the cap to English detective fiction that declines to avert its gaze into the nonsense of the convention. The theme of miracle cures is important, so the one scene of emotion toward the end matters a lot - I didn't feel it, maybe because the moment of death was never addressed thematically. Hey - it's a country estate, built on the deaths of others.The pace and humour are good, and the hero is perfectly smashed and detached. The weakness is in the supporting characters - not the performances, but their drama and the necessity of their presence. No great turns or lines, and I guess that's down to the original writing.Music and sets are gorgeous, editing keeps it clipping along.Overall: Insightful and entertaining, not so dramatic.
screechy_jim
I was going to pass on this one based on the fact that I simply didn't find the title appealing, but when I read it was an adaptation from a book written by Stephen Fry, I simply had to watch it.I really enjoyed the film and the main character Ted Wallace played by Roger Allem is fantastic. As a foul mouthed, egotistical, pompous cynic he does an exceptional job. The rest of the cast is fair to good and though the its a fairly small number of characters, for the most part it works reasonably well. I would have liked to have read the book as I have a sneaking suspicion that this adaptation doesn't do it justice, which of course would be entirely understandable.Some of the characters, such as Madam Valerie and her daughter Clara, seem all to superfluous and present only in order to allow certain aspects of the plot to cone to fruition. As it stand their presence is thin and awkward, and highlights the lack of substance they have in the film. There are some issues with other characters but I'm nit picking so will leave it at that.I found it an entertaining 'whodunit' quintessentially British with as contemporary a feel as can be mustered in a great house of the rural English countryside. The script is pretty good if a tad odd and overdone in places, but nothing too serious. The direction and screenplay are also on par and the whole thing fits together quite nicely really. There was some slight discomfort in the progression of events. The most noticeable being the very sudden transition from disparaging cynic to disparaging mystery solver. It was all a bit 'Scooby Doo' in resolution and I can't help but feel some essential material that would have ensured a more natural feel ended up on the cutting room floor. in fact to be totally honest I get the feeling quite a lot of this one ended up there. Still, all in all its very good and quite enjoyable.I don't think for a moment this film will be for everyone, but for what it is, it's a pretty good piece. I definitely recommend it.
AD
