Can you feel sympathetic for a thoroughly unpleasant man who orders a murder? Maybe if you despise the would be victim, but the oddity of the Jeremy Thorpe story is that you can somehow end up with a measure of sympathy for both perpetrator and target without being certain that either deserve it. Thorpe, leader of Britain's liberal party, would have suffered no conseqeunces for being a monstrous individial had he not happened to be gay at a time that homosexual acts were first illegal, then later subject to strong social disapproval. Norman Scott was a young man with whom he had a sexual relationship (to be frank, by today's standards, it was initiated with an act of rape), couldn't get his own life together, fell back on Thorpe as his only hope (and used threats when Thorpe grew tired of supporting him), and ended up escaping a hysterically incompetent assasination event though his dog was shot in the process. In the end, Thorpe was acquitted of any crime thanks to his brilliant QC and an awful judge; but no-one was convinced, and his career was over.
Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw are both quite brilliant in this telling of the story, as Thorpe and Scott respectively. Although the whole escapade is too farcical to be profoundly moving, you do feel sympathy towards two men increasingly locked together in an unsought destiny. Thankfully, society's treatment of alternate sexuality has improved over the last 40 years; the odd, competitve characters of those drawn into politics probably has not.
Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw are both quite brilliant in this telling of the story, as Thorpe and Scott respectively. Although the whole escapade is too farcical to be profoundly moving, you do feel sympathy towards two men increasingly locked together in an unsought destiny. Thankfully, society's treatment of alternate sexuality has improved over the last 40 years; the odd, competitve characters of those drawn into politics probably has not.