User Reviews

I just watched this movie today. It was interesting, but weird in the beginning, and I must admit I rented it only to see Alan Rickman, an actor I've enjoyed watching thoroughly since I saw him in Die Hard and Quigley Down Under. (I actually liked him more than Bruce Willis or Tom Selleck and they were both pretty hunky)

Alan Rickman is one of those actors who frequently plays villains that I truly love watching, (Gary Oldman being another) They are both handsome in offputting ways and have something about them that makes them unique. (loads of acting talent, mesmerizing voice, deep eyes) Anyway, at first I was intrigued by the story of young Stella, but I was quickly bored after not seeing Mr. Rickman more than halfway through the movie. I fastwarded some and saw him riding in on his motorcycle and then enjoyed the rest of the movie until he fell off the boardwalk....boo!!!

I wouldn't recommend this film unless you like convoluted stories about nasty people doing nasty things to each other. I would however, recommend it for the acting, in that vein, it's pretty believable.

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!"

A bitter-sweet film with comic moments, especially the amazing performance by Hugh Grant. I missed a few priceless quips because I couldn't quite get the meaning because of the dialect, but a replay solved that problem. Georgina Cates was so beguiling and wistful in her role. I hope to see more of her. And what a treat to see Rita Rushingham if only in an underwritten, restrained part. Alan Rickman tortured response to the twist (twisted?) event which occurs in the film was difficult to watch. What a brilliant, subtle, internalized reaction in the living room of Stella's uncle -a fine piece of acting!

This is a must for Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman fans!

I bought this movie in a pack of four Hugh Grant movies. I was really excited to watch it since I had never seen it. Let me tell you that I have never been more disappointed in my life from a movie with Hugh Grant. The movie doesn't have a point at all, and the revelations that the characters have are not clear at all. So you are left asking yourself is he really her dad or not or is that just something they want you to think, and is Hugh Grant supposed to be gay in this film? I don't know maybe I am not catching on to something that most viewers are, but I didn't like this movie at all. I have seen that there is a book, and I have thought about reading it. But the movie has turned me off from it thus far.

It is insanely perverse of New Line Home entertainment to tout this downbeat film as a 'warm-hearted comedy'.

I didn't know what to expect from Mike Newell. He's made films of all genres and has recently made the Hollywood set with The Prince of Persia, though it was a bit of a flop, but still...

I liked his Enchanted April a great deal and Four Weddings and a Funeral had its charms and was very mainstream. So I had hopes of liking An Awfully Big Adventure as well. I was also curious to see the only film adaptation of a Beryl Bainbridge novel. I wasn't prepared for An Awfully Big Adventure being so strange and just plain weird.

This film boasts a splendid cast of actors, many of them long past their primes but then so are most of the characters in the movie.

The technical credits, music, cinematography and script are fine, the acting, as stated, is superb, but this is one of the most depressing films I've ever seen. The story is neurotic, childish and yet strangely touching, chock-full of Catholic suffering and self-flagellation.

The characters are drawn beautifully and the overall point of the story is well-taken, the devastation of war on human psyches and all that, but the ultimate point of the story, incest, is a shocking and seemingly irrelevant side swipe that threw this viewer's mind off center.

I waited for something deep to be revealed but the film simply stops with the sudden incest angle.

It's your basic sordid tale of a troupe of has-beens on their last legs in a Liverpool theatre. The young girl, Stella, is extremely odd and doesn't seem to possess a shred of innocence that I think we were supposed to think she possessed. She's naïve to be sure and inexperienced but innocent, no. And fantasy life borders on the psychotic. I have no doubt she ended up either a nun or a whore.

Georgina Cates gives a pretty great performance though she's very difficult to understand more often than not and I have been watching British/Irish/Scotch films for years. She trips over many of her lines in a self-conscious way, part of her character perhaps.

Alan Rickman is not quite as mush-mouthed as he usually is but I still don't understand the wild passion of his deathless legions of fans. I find him very boring most of the time, but he can pull out some moments of high drama when called upon to do so.

Hugh Grant actually does the most convincing job of acting. His old pansy stage director with his nicotine-yellowed fingers made me squirm; a simply awful person.

There are two splendid performances by Nicola Pagett and Carol Drinkwater as the two fading beauties in the troupe of actors; the former a love-sick tragedienne and the latter a hopeless, sex-starved drunk. And Peter Firth returns to the big screen in a quietly humorous and yet pathetic stage manager, Bunny. In his subtle way Firth steals the show whenever he's on screen.

No, this is not a warm-hearted comedy. It is a nasty tale with a heart of latex.

Having said all that it's worth seeing as an oddity. I could not give it less than 5 stars because the over-all quality of the production and performances is so very high. It's just Beryl Bainbridge's dark, sad story that leaves a pall. Maybe, in time, I will come to view this as some kind of minor masterpiece, but I doubt it.

A very odd viewing experience. No wonder it flopped in America. This kind of socialist, down-trodden banging-on doesn't even get off the ground in a free society.

This has long been one of my favourite films, not least because of its unusual storyline. It gives us a window into the depressing life of the provinces in post World War II England, and also into the life of actors working in the British Repertory system - the youthful enthusiasm of the youngsters, and the frustrations and petty jealousies of the older troupers, long past their prime, if they ever had one.

Georgina Cates is superb as the determined Stella, always playing a part whether on-stage or off. She's naive, but ready to do whatever it's going to take to get her foot in the door of the theatrical world. There's a ruthless quality underneath the wide-eyed innocent - she will probably never know that her first lover was actually her father, but if she ever learned the truth, she would probably milk it for all she could.

Hugh Grant is quite repulsive as the predatory Meredith, giving us a rare view of him before he was discovered as the quintessential British sex symbol. It's a fine performance, and he gives much more than he does in most of his later roles where he is required to do little more than be charming, amusing, and sexy.

And there's Alan Rickman, strong and commanding as always. A shame that he only comes in half-way through, but well worth the wait. His love scenes with Stella were tender and sad - the older man trying to recapture the lost love of his youth, and coming far closer than he realised. The scene when he learned just what he'd done was perfectly played - tragic without ever falling over into melodrama. And as an aside, what a brilliant Captain Hook he'd have made!

There was generally good work from the supporting cast, particularly from Prunella Scales as the cynical but not unkind theatre manager, and the wonderful Alun Armstrong as Stella's uncle Vernon. A man of simple philosophy, but not as dense as people like Meredith might think. It's not beyond possibility that his character would have eventually arrived at the truth by himself. He'd be shocked, but I think not surprised, and would take it on board as one of life's strange ironies, without ever quite understanding just how it tore P.L. apart.

Some people have found the incest to be distasteful and are put off the film because of it, but it was a tragedy of Greek proportions, a twist of fate for which nobody was responsible, and the protagonists were more to be pitied than reviled. It was handled superbly well, and at the end I felt only sadness for P.L. O'Hara. Stella would survive and go on, no matter what; she would need no-one to weep for her.