I always approach film adaptations of literary works with foreboding. Usually the foreboding is justified; sometimes, as with the excellent adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's 'A Handful of Dust' the film version captures the essence of the work. Here Stephen Fry, directing for the first time, has succeeded in capturing the gay heedlessness of his characters but has managed to blunt Waugh's acid wit with a mawkish and uncalled for ending.
The plot, such as there is, concerns the attempts of Adam (Stephen Campbell-Moore), society gossip columnist and aspiring novelist, to get published, and to persuade the beautiful Nina (Emily Mortimer) to marry him. Along the way he attends a number of social and sporting events, documenting the activities of the same group of upper class twits (who are not entirely unsympathetic). Some scenes really come across well, such as the impounding of the manuscript of Adams novel at Dover by a customs official (Jim Carter) who seems to be under the strange delusion that all hand-written manuscripts are pornographic. Dan Ackroyd as Adam's employer the Beaverbrook-like Lord Monomark is also very amusing and Peter O'Toole does a good comic turn as Nina's addled father.
The book ('Vile Bodies') had a narrative flow to it - a rake's progress, if you like, but the film is episodic, some scenes work better than others, and of course the ending both departs from the book and is wrong anyway. Some cameos work better than others (John Mills as a 90 year old inadvertent cocaine user was just absurd) though the young leads generally put in spirited performances, especially Fenella Woolgar as Agatha the Demon Driver (a veritable female Toad).
All in all a bit of a mess, and I'm sure Waugh would have demanded his name off the credits. It's a film that probably doesn't tell us much about its era (late 20s-early 30s) but it may have something to tell us about our own. I'll let you know when I work out what that is, but it could be something like 'a dozen cameos do not a good movie make.
The plot, such as there is, concerns the attempts of Adam (Stephen Campbell-Moore), society gossip columnist and aspiring novelist, to get published, and to persuade the beautiful Nina (Emily Mortimer) to marry him. Along the way he attends a number of social and sporting events, documenting the activities of the same group of upper class twits (who are not entirely unsympathetic). Some scenes really come across well, such as the impounding of the manuscript of Adams novel at Dover by a customs official (Jim Carter) who seems to be under the strange delusion that all hand-written manuscripts are pornographic. Dan Ackroyd as Adam's employer the Beaverbrook-like Lord Monomark is also very amusing and Peter O'Toole does a good comic turn as Nina's addled father.
The book ('Vile Bodies') had a narrative flow to it - a rake's progress, if you like, but the film is episodic, some scenes work better than others, and of course the ending both departs from the book and is wrong anyway. Some cameos work better than others (John Mills as a 90 year old inadvertent cocaine user was just absurd) though the young leads generally put in spirited performances, especially Fenella Woolgar as Agatha the Demon Driver (a veritable female Toad).
All in all a bit of a mess, and I'm sure Waugh would have demanded his name off the credits. It's a film that probably doesn't tell us much about its era (late 20s-early 30s) but it may have something to tell us about our own. I'll let you know when I work out what that is, but it could be something like 'a dozen cameos do not a good movie make.