PETER'S FRIENDS
A film review by Christina Marie O'Sullivan
Copyright 1992 Christina Marie O'Sullivan
Directed by Kenneth Branagh Written by Kenneth Branagh and Rita Rudner Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Rita Rudner, Tony Slattery, Imelda Staunton, Emma Thompson.
PETER'S FRIENDS, by cast list alone, should make for a good film, if not an excellent one. Alas, it didn't.
Ten years after appearing at a New Year's Party performing "Orpheus in the Underground" Cabaret, the troupe reunite at the huge mansion of one member, Peter, at his request. There is Maggie (Emma Thompson), the frumpish, bookish one who is terribly attached to her cat; Andrew (Kenneth Branagh), the self-hating sarcastic alcoholic scriptwriter; Sarah, the energetic promiscuous one; the married couple (Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie) who are still mourning the loss of one of their children and worried sick about the survivor; and Peter himself, who seems rootless in career and in intimate relationships, and has inherited a huge, beautiful English mansion. For New Year's Eve 1991, Peter invites them all to meet. Andrew brings his American actress-wife (Rita Rudner) who embodies all the stereotypes of an American television actress; Sarah brings Tony, her current lover, who is married to someone else. Once they meet and catch up, a series of surprises and revelations follows, with Peter making the biggest "surprise" of all.
Of course the course of events does not run smoothly. What looks promising during the opening credits all the way to the train station where Maggie meets up with Sarah and Brian (Tony Slattery) slides into a dog of a script. Peter's surprise is pretty evident by the time he and Andrew collect firewood; and it appears that during the writing, Branagh and Rudner were so hung up on their own characters (I guess obnoxious characters beset by personal problems are supposedly more complicated than genial characters beset by personal problems) that the married couple are given precious little to do, and Laurie looks really out of place and uncomfortable with his screen role. By the time Rudner's character gains an atom of respectability, her character is shunted off to L.A.; and apparently Rudner and Branagh had decided that Sarah's lover was just getting too much attention, so they wrote him off to return back to his wife.
The film has a few wonderful moments: Maggie leaving her cat, and telling Andrew of her last relationship with a guy who wrote self-help books; Sarah and Brian making wild, spontaneous love in the train; Maggie making a pass at Peter; and Rudner's meeting with the cook: "Haven't you seen 'Upstairs, Downstairs'?"
However, a few wonderful moments doesn't always make for a good film. I was really disappointed, and felt that the actors were wasted in their roles.
Christina O'Sullivan cosulliv@sfu.ca
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