A Snappy,Jazzy look at "The Lost Generation"
Added 1/5/2008
Between the two World Wars, a group of young idealists,Bohemian in attitude and coming from either the artist/poet/musician throngs or from the idle sensationally bored upper class , needed to occupy their time with parties,fashion,drugs,booze,reckless living and the new way of thought,all to find some kind of meaning to life.They were known as "The Lost Generation".These were the days of Hemingway,Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.Lots of them tragic figures,brilliant beyond belief,but many brought to despair and suicide.
Actor Stephen Fry has adapted with great pizzazz Evelyn Waugh's satirical 1930 novel "Vile (Decaying) Bodies" in a rip roaring,carefree and "care-less" depiction of this group of Bohemian Richie-Riches known as "Bright Young Things".The film is fast paced and bawdy.The characters are feckless and obnoxious.They are living on the edge of disaster and the world flocks to read about them in the London Tabloids.In fact, they garner more attention than "The Royals".(Face it, has celebrity goings on ever changed? Britney beat out Obama in the headlines yesterday! C'mon?)These young people had no interest in politics,they treated money like water,and excess was the name of the game!They lived for the moment knowing that somehow it would end....but who cared?
I have always admired the generosity and sensitivity of Stephen Fry (BLACK ADDER,WILDE,PETER'S FRIENDS) as an actor these past 20+ years,and as a director I admire him even more.The cast assembled for this look at "The Lost Generation" is a veritable UK Who's-Who: Jim Broadbent,Imelda Staunton,James MacAvoy (currently in ATONEMENT),Emily Mortimer (currently in LARS AND THE REAL GIRL),Julia McKenzie and Stephen Campbell Moore as well as Americans staples Dan Aykroyd and Stockard Channing....and Fry lets them sizzle to a fizzle as these "bright young things" burn their candles at both ends and in the middle until some of them snuff out completely,lost in oblivion.Society dances on the edge in this film,and not since WILD PARTY or CHICAGO has a film so captured the reckless abandon of a generation.This is not a stodgey English Period Piece all corsetted and prim like Waugh's other famous "Brideshead Revisited" and "A Handful of Dust" (Both made into rather dreary films IMO).BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS is a brilliantly acted, all stops pulled out, nonsensical romp through the 1930's leading up to the Blitz.
The DVD extras are wonderfully informative including a small featurette filmed by "the runners" who worked on the film,giving the casual filmgoer a day to day look at the behind the scenes work and workers on films.The other featurette is a look at Fry and also includes a superb commentary.WORTH IT from a marvelous actor in his directorial debut.
Other films dedicated to "The Lost Generation" are WAITING FOR THE MOON,THE MODERNS,NORA,TOM AND VIV,SCOTT AND ZELDA,THE GREAT GATSBY, A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY and the Broadway play THE VIOLET HOUR.
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Sorry Mr. Ebert, for my wife and I disagree. We struggled to get this one through to the end but I am giving two stars because of the era and it did have a few bright spots. You can skip this one and not miss anything.
PS-If the film was accurate, I didn't realize the 'white powder' was so popular back then....interesting.
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Four and a half stars, because of its wonderful ending!
Added 8/31/2007
"Bright Young Things" is brilliantly written and directed by Stephen Fry, the enormous talent who played "Jeeves" opposite Hugh Laurie in 23 episodes of the wonderful British comedy, "Jeeves and Wooster" (1990-1993), which should be a collector's item.
This film has an ensemble cast of great British actors, and depicts British decadence in all of its glory prior to World War II. Few should ever doubt Fry's talents, and they are on full display in this film.
Stephen Campbell Moore as "Adam Fenwick-Symes," and Emily Mortimer as "Nina Blount" are terrific, and their love transcends the inaneness, perfidies and puffery of Britain's upper class.
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Too, too shaming
Added 12/29/2006
Evelyn Waugh's most characteristic novel VILE BODIES would seem almost impossibly difficult to adapt for film; Stephen Fry tries here, and achieves much, but doesn't quite pull it off. Some of the characters from Waugh's novel are captured perfectly (particularly the desperate gossip columnist the Earl Balcairn, played here with real pathos and energy by the wonderful James McAvoy, and the gloomy wife of a prime minister, played all too briefly by Imelda Staunton), but others fall very wide of Waugh's mark. Many of the actors seems to be trying too hard, which is absolutely not in the spirit of the original novel. Fry makes the wild 30s parties seem far too much like their analogues from his contemporary experience, and he dooms the screenplay by providing it with a false romantic ending that goes grossly against the grain of Waugh's novel.
5 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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not bad - but pales in comparison with the book
Added 5/4/2006
It is difficult to fairly assess a film when you've recently read and immensely enjoyed the book it was based on. Although - ideally - Bright Young Things should be evaluated for its own faults and merits and not be measured against Vile Bodies, I - admittedly - cannot help but compare it to Evelyn Waugh's biting comic satire.
For the most part, Bright Young Things is faithful to the plot of Vile Bodies. It follows the lives of several young London socialites as they hop from one glamorous party to the next, always with an air of wit and boredom, and it focuses on the might-be romance between Adam, a poor young writer, and his lovely fiance, Nina. Although light and comic on its surface, Bright Young Things also preserves the dark undercurrent that runs through the novel.
And yet, this film - in my opinion - misses the mark. To begin with, I believe that it spends too much time trying to develop its plot and not enough time lingering over the characters' verbal musings. Vile Bodies truly excels in its dialogue, not in the development of its story. And, because the makers of Bright Young Things apparently failed to realize this, the film is resultantly much less funny.
I also feel that Bright Young Things takes itself too seriously. The romance between Adam and Nina comes across as much more sincere in the film than it does in the book. Also, the film's ending is very different from the book's; it tidies things up neatly and inserts a sort of hopeful, moral. To me, this came across as forced and incongruent with the story.
I think Vile Bodies has the potential to be made into a great film. After all, with the abundance of dialogue, it reads more like a play than a novel anyway. Unfortunately, this film does not do the story justice. If you have read the book, I think you'll be disappointed. If you haven't read it - you might find this film - with its subtle, dry wit - funnier than your average comedy ... but, then again ... why not just read the book? It's better.
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