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An Awfully Big Adventure by Stephen Farber Not all movies about community are such glowing tributes to a familial spirit. Mike Newell's last film, Four Weddings and a Funeral, celebrated love and loyalty among a tight circle of friends. Viewers hoping for the same warm feeling from his new film, An Awfully Big Adventure, are in for a shock. This dark, bitter story centers around a theatrical repertory company in Liverpool shortly after World War II. The young heroine, Stella (played by a talented newcomer, Georgina Cates), joins the troupe because she is seeking a surrogate family. Both of her parents abandoned her, and she's hoping that the theater will give her a sense of belonging. Instead she finds a petty, destructive band of vipers. Unfortunately, the huge cast of characters is not well differentiated, and the thick Liverpudlian accents don't help us to get our bearings. Charles Wood, who wrote the scripts for How I Won the War and The Charge of the Light Brigade back in the '60's, has always been a chilly writer. Wood and Newell seem grimly determned to deny us of any of the fun of theatrical satire; they're intent on withholding pleasure. And that holds for Hugh Grant's performance as well. Grant's character, the Waspish director of the troupe, is a master manipulator who enjoys toying with all the people in the company. But for us to understand why Stella and the others remain under his spell, he needs to be seductive as well as ruthless, and God knows Hugh Grant is more than capable of conveying that charisma. But he's smothered his natural charm in a misguided attempt at hard-edged realism. The film picks up steam when Alan Rickman enters. Playing the dashing actor cast as Captain Hook in the company's production of Peter Pan, the film moves toward a macabre conclusion, it builds power, though some of the plot developments are maddeningly murky. The movie ends with an image of Stella completely isolated, which chillingly punctures the dream of community that opened the film. Finally, however, this harsh, alienating film is far less satisfying than sunnier films about the camaraderie of a straggling band of players. Its lack of sentimentality is commendable but not exactly a joy to behold. What did you think of this movie? Sound off in the Movie Forum. |
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