SAMMY AND ROSIE GET LAID
A film review by Eric Townsend
Copyright 1988 Eric Townsend
Directed by Stephen Frears, written by Hanif Kureishi, produced by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe. Starring: Shashi Kapoor, Frances Barber, Claire Bloom, Ayub Khan Din, Roland Gift and Wendy Gazelle.
Okay, to review this movie without giving any spoilers will be kind of tough, so we'll start this whole thing off with a short history of the title of this film, and the problems caused by it.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) not only rates movies, it also passes 'taste' type judgements on film titles. Nearly every American movie theater's distributor belongs to the MPAA. The MPAA didn't like the title SAMMY AND ROSIE GET LAID--'salacious' was their word--and told theatres that they could not use the title. The main function of the MPAA is to rate movies and stop duplication of titles and plots, along with protecting copyrights. They do have a history of stopping titles from distribution, but they refuse to name any titles they have done this with. Any distribution company that belongs to the MPAA is contract bound to *not* release any titles that the MPAA does not approve.
What this means: Cinecom (the film's distributor) belongs to the MPAA, and could not use the full title in advertising the film. So they one-upped the MPAA and released the film without an official title. Advertising of the film was up to *individual theatres* and the medium they used for advertising. The official movie logo is something like: aSammy n dRosie Get Laid written inside a ticket stub that has its lower half burnt off. (One of the promotional themes is "While London burns, Sammy and Rosie get laid.") It is up to individual distributors and advertisers to decide how much of the words "Get Laid" gets burnt off. This has been an effective compromise, but it is *still* CENSORSHIP. The MPAA would have probably had a field day with the working title of the movie: THE FUCK. Flame off, review on.
SAMMY AND ROSIE is a frenetic, fast-paced film set in modern London, scene of vicious riots. Sammy and Rosie are a social conscious, liberal young couple living in the heart of the action and ignoring most of the whole thing. The film follows the problems of Sammy's relationships with his wife Rosie, his American girlfriend, Rosie's boyfriend and Sammy's father Rafi--a [Pakistani] government official in hiding.
The film portrays both sides of each major character's *story*. We see both sides of Sammy, Rosie, Rafi and even of Rosie's 'social consciousness', two of her minority lesbian friends. (Can you say polar political/social stereotype?) This view from both sides makes the characters, the plot, the whole movie very personally moving. No judgement is made of Sammy's father Rafi; instead we are show evidence for and against supposed crimes that he committed while helping India through a revolution against the British.
While seeming to be a political movie--it has its editorializing moments, but they are thankfully brief--it is a social movie, about people and how people deal with other people. We aren't told about Sammy and Rosie's open marriage; we are shown it in action and get to see them work out problems within the relationship.
The visual imagery of the film is jarringly fast and quick cut, with little time to absorb details. The characters are shown against a fast-moving, complex background composed of riots in London, incredibly liberal (by modern American standards) groups of people existing, a ragamuffin caravan of wandering musicians/artists and sex. Sex is an important part of Sammy and Rosie, almost as much as the conversation.
The conversation. Viewers not adept at following thick British and Indian accents may have to watch lips move to pick up all the lines. No one character steals the show with dialog (unlike BROADCAST NEWS); each character has hir share of snappy patter and quick lines. The problem is, again, the thick accents. It took a second showing before I deciphered a line by Rafi to his mistress of twenty years earlier: "For me, England is hot buttered toast on a fork in front of an open fire ... and cunty fingers."
My opinion? Go see it. Again and again, until you run out of money.
J. Eric Townsend ->uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict smail:511Parker#2,Hstn,Tx,77007
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