An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)

Strictly average movie

Purely Joyful Movie!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Amateur movie with Big budget

Have you ever noticed that we tend to be harder on the movies that disappoint us, rather than the ones we approach with lowered expectations? That's what happened here.First of all, I wouldn't have seen this at all if I hadn't been seduced by the deceptive PR. Promise one thing and deliver another. I thought it was kind of mean to get lure me into the theater with the promise of something more lighthearted. The worst part? I went with my parents. Yeah, thanks so much. I really want to see a movie about incest when I'm sitting with my Mom and Dad.The characters were unappetizing and nasty. The resolution was the downer of all time. Frankly, I hate stories that seem to take a perverse pleasure in ending with the Worst Case Scenario. Truthfully, it was in its own way, an unrealistic cop-out. Why do movie makers always seem to think it's more meaningful and dramatic to kill off characters, rather than confront their conflicts in a more creative way? They ought to post labels on movies such as this...something like "WARNING: Nasty characters, Over-the-top-Greek-Tragedy-Climax! You'll leave the theater wanting to drive off the nearest pier, yourself!"

What a strange title to give a film about some of the ugliest characters you'll ever come across. This film could have been put out by those who felt for centuries that "theater folk" are people to stay FAR away from - their nasty name-calling, their preying on the young, their perversions, their plain meanness - can't be rubbed away as easily as the darkness drawn by any numbered make-up. Whew, what an ugly UGLY group of people. I shivered. You'll want a bath after this one. The acting, sets, costumes were first rate - particularly Nicola Pagett, Hugh Grant, Alun Armstrong, Peter Firth, and the girl playing the lead (whose name now escapes me). It was wonderful to see Pagett in a film again (she was superb not only in Upstairs Downstairs but as the greatest Anna Karenina yet seen in the 10 hour series). I was also pleased to see Rita Tushingham in too small a part as the aunt. If you like watching bullies gather together in playgrounds to attack, kick, and tear apart the clothes, confidence, limbs and self-esteem of the smallest and youngest, you may however find this appealing. For me, this is one of the darkest and most depressing films I've ever seen.

I've been curious about this movie for a long time. I finally saw it on IFC.It was great! In this age of VERY expensive, predictable, committee-approved "art", I was relieved to watch this story unfold. Although I suspected early on about the relationship between Cates and Rickman's characters, it's execution was much better than the usual pap that pretends to be a surprise or twist.Or even interesting.The real twists in this story, was its own mirror of the real human forces and decisions that keep some of the sweetest, and unfortunately, worst stories going on. The twists were the tiny reasons why such things, sometimes painful and abhorrent to our collective cultural sense of what's right and decent in a society, to continue within it.The hypocrisy of denying that these dark parts of ourselves exist often cause them to continue. Often times, the self-appointed moral-police of our culture make this inevitable in their pursuit of human frailty, the aftermath of its hunt, and the white-washing of the events (and non-events) they discovered.No character represented total evil, good, decadence or purity, including Stella. She had as much (subtle) emotional weaponry with her, as she had emotional scars.Many Americans don't like, or have been trained (over time) to not have patience for such imperfect main-characters in fiction anymore. The one-dimensional, mass-marketed character, is the norm here now.That's sad. Because of that, this movie (and others like it) didn't do very well here.Having this story take place within the entertainment industry is an excellent way of displaying so much of the world's human tragedy AND stupidity being covered up by some people's treachery, some people's nobility, or a combination of both.And even at the end of this tale, all of the stage crew, like life itself, executed their own particular versions of the adage, "The show must go on."No perfect hollywood story here, with it's base and stupid doling out of come-uppance of everyone's flaws...or Evil.

"An Awfully Big Adventure" is a story of a naive 16 year old girl, wonderfully played by Georgiana Cates, and her interaction with the members of a bottom-of-the-line stock company in 1947 Liverpool. The Liverpool actors are lead by an incredibly nasty, chain-smoking homosexual director, played by Hugh Grant in what may have been the best performance of his career. Their star, "Perhaps the best Captain Hook ever," is played by Alan Rickman in yet another stellar performance. This is a consistently entertaining but very, very cynical coming of age story. Thus, it may not be for all tastes. Nevertheless, I recommended it highly, 8 out of 10.