Awfully Big Adventure, An | | Cast : | Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant | | Director : | Mike Newell | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | July 21, 1995 | | DVD Released Date : | April 19, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Intriguing and creepy, but Rickman fans will love it anyway | Content
 | The acting is fine, but the story--help! The problem is not Rickman's or Grant's unsavory characters, but the propensity in too many small, independent British films to present lower-middle class characters as if they were slow. The message I get from all these films comes across as snobbish: That people are poor in Britain because they are stupid. But stupidity by itself isn't funny anyway, although that point is lost on producers from both sides of the Ocean. Here, Cate plays a girl who is more than young and naive as the adverts suggest; she is a mentally handicapped and/or emotionally disturbed girl. (The girl's aunt and uncle are also unpleasantly slow.) Cate plays this very well, but her character becomes creepy and rather repulsive. On the other hand, Rickman's and Grant's reaction to her character is what gives this film its interest. Rickman seducing Cate's underage character (she doesn't really look it) isn't creepy at all and is the high point of the film, but maybe that's because it's Rickman that does it. Grant is excellent, playing a different role than usual, and he looks different and slightly goofy here too, a bit like Terry Thomas. But Rickman fans will not want to miss this movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 11, 2005 | | Summary | A viewing adventure of discovery. | Content
| I'd have to concur with many of the reviewers here in their thoughts of this film. I started with certain expectations because of the film adverts. As often happens when a film already has a form in your mind, I had trouble with the lack of synergy between what was described and what I viewed. Had no one said anything but this is a foreign film full of quircky characters and a non-formulaic plot, I'd have enjoyed the first viewing much more. The actors are completely brilliant and if you accept their characters with all their quircky and often sad flaws, this film is more of a tragedy with a cast of eccentric (and often very funny) characters. After setting aside and coming back to it, I found I really enoyed this movie. And it's true, each viewing seems to show another layer or has me focus on another character. Rickman's performance is stellar...no pun intended. :-) And incredible that a woman the age of (rumor has it) at least 30+ if not 40's) was able to carry off the role of the very affecting Stella.
I love Hugh Grant's character who appears to be the 'bad guy' but finally you're left wondering if he didn't just speed along the inevitable. He's still a bit of a conundrum, because he's surely written to be unlikable but is that a challenge to the moviegoer to see past the veneer, or is the veneer all their is...hmm... Oy I'm getting dizzy. :-)
I really think this rates high in the quicky foreign film category and perhaps not quite an Ameilie but certainly had it been marketed more in that vein the right audience and movie would have found each other!
I'd only recommend this movie to those that like the unusual films that are to the left of the main shelves kind of buried in the back row and you love making that great gem of a find that you feel like no one knows about! :-) Hope this helped a bit with making a decision about buying it. It's available in VHS formate for a bit less, especially used, if you're having trouble with the commitment to the DVD price. Happy viewing! |
| Rating | | | Date | April 26, 2005 | | Summary | A Lovely, Sad Movie... woefully misleading adverts | Content
| This is an excellent film, moving, sad, even tragic. It is NOT a "warm hearted comedy," as it says on the back of the DVD. And it certainly is not "hilarious". The blurb on the cover is quite possibly the most misleading I have ever come across. Despite that, it is a lovely film. It is a solid, serious British drama, with an excellent all round cast. The humour where present is decidedly low key. Its predominant mood is one of sadness and loss, there is warmth to be sure, but certainly not what is projected on the cover or in the trailer. One wonders why the publicists chose to so misrepresent such a fine film. Was it because they were worried its serious and even dark nature would put off the popcorn munchers? Perhaps it would have been better if they had. Then we wouldn't have been saddled with so many negative reviews from viewers who naturally felt short-changed. Then again, this is not a movie that American audiences would readily take to.
Set in 1947, it tells the story of a 16 year old girl, Stella (Georgina Cates), abandoned at birth by a wayward mother and brought up by her aunt and uncle, who aspires to join the Theatre. Into this milieu she willingly plunges herself. She encounters sordid seedy characters. She takes on menial tasks without pay. She embraces all with a gushing eager naivete. She falls for the stage director (Hugh Grant) who in her young innocence she doesn't realise actually has a preference for boys. She then latches on to an aging Lothario (Alan Rickman) who does appreciate young girls. In this darkness in which she finds herself, past and present intersect. The absent mother she faithfully places a call to everyday, the same mother who gave her away years ago, becomes the silent confidant of her hopes and fears. The aging Rickman character constantly pines for his own past even as he happily deflowers the young girl. The stage director's sordid history of seducing and then spurning young men finally comes to a head. All combine to create an air of loss and decay. A nice touch was the use of a lone flute playing "The Last Rose Of Summer" whenever the Rickman character thinks back to his lost love. If you know the song, it perfectly encapsulates the mood of this movie. And yes there is a twist at the end, but if you have been paying attention, it won't come as too much of a shock. Although the prudes and the self-righteous will as usual recoil in moral outrage.
New Line Entertainment has given us a fine if bare-bones DVD. The film is transferred in it's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (enhanced for widescreen TV). Picure quality is good, clean and clear with natural warm colors. Black levels are just right. Audio includes the original stereo plus both DTS and Dolby 5.1 remixes. Excellent presentation. There are even optional English subtitles for people who can't get round the British accents. Thank goodness not everybody makes sanitized, Hollywood dross. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 16, 2004 | | Summary | Definitely worth a second look...and a third...and a fourth | Content
| I first saw An Awfully Big Adventure on TV at two o'clock in the morning. It made very little sense, and I couldn't understand about a third of what was being said, but the movie still, as another reviewer succinctly put it, "hijacked my consciousness." It was subtle, honest, unforgiving, amazingly well-acted, and a lot of other good things that I can't find the words for right now. I recently purchased a copy of the video, and realize now that while it loses nothing upon further viewing, An Awfully Big Adventure benefits greatly from a second watching. The dialogue becomes clearer the more you listen to it and the nuances of the characters and the story become more pronounced. Even though my first reaction to the film was favorable, I still think that one cannot judge this movie fairly after only seeing it once (although if you enjoyed it the first time, you probably will again). I have a feeling that nearly all of the reviews here are by first-time watchers, and while you shouldn't entirely discredit their remarks, keep in mind that, like most complex movies, An Awfully Big Adventure only gets better the more you watch it. I also feel that it cannot be stressed enough that this is not a happy, uplifting movie. "Disturbing" is a word used often to describe it, but the word that comes to my mind is "uncomfortable." There's really nothing at the end of the film to redeem all of the sadness, as is common in most movies. Thus, if you don't like to watch depressing movies, DON'T WATCH AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE. And if you're an Alan Rickman or Hugh Grant fan (both of whom are great) and insist upon seeing it, don't write a review that discourages others from watching it just because it was too dark for your tastes. *I haven't read the novel of the same title by Beryl Bainbridge, but I've heard that it helps to clarify the confusing points in the movie, besides being a good book. Just a thought... |
| Rating | | | Date | February 12, 2004 | | Summary | Great film...highly inaccurate synopsis | Content
| First and foremost, I want to state that this is NOT a comedy. The summary on the back of the box, describing it as "hilarious," "warmhearted," and so forth, reads as though it was written by somebody who never saw the movie. It is about as much of a comedy as Hamlet is a go-kart race. That said, it is a super film. Set in 1947, the story centers on sixteen-year-old Stella Bradshaw, who has lost her mother in the war and lives with her aunt and uncle. Stella joins an amateur theatre company and falls instantly in love with the company's slimeball of a director, Meredith Potter. It doesn't take long for her to be lured into the milieu's seedy underbelly, and eventually she has her first (and second and third...) sexual encounter with P.L. O'Hara, star of the company's production of "Peter Pan". The end of the movie will certainly be found disturbing and/or sad by most (hence my omission of the fifth star in rating the movie), but it's still worth watching - most likely more than once, so you can start to fill in the details you might have missed before. (There's a whole lot of information packed into this plot, and it's very easy to let stuff slip by!) The cast, of course, is wonderful. Georgina Cates is well cast as Stella, and very pretty too. Her characterization of the shy, unsure-of-herself girl is engaging and well thought out. (She looks about twelve until a scene where we see her topless. Then the illusion is pretty much shattered.) Alan Rickman, as P.L. O'Hara, is great as usual. The big surprise here for me was Hugh Grant's performance as Meredith Potter. He is actually playing a character here - and a nasty one at that. That alone is worth watching the movie! The supporting cast is terrific as well. It was fun to see such first-rate actors bringing such life to such teeny roles (for example, Edward Petherbridge, who has all of approximately fifteen seconds onscreen). To sum up, An Awfully Big Adventure - though certainly disturbing in places - is an awfully good film. |
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