With
his third directorial effort, Kenneth
Branagh (who had already done the Shakespearean Henry V and the noir thriller Dead
Again) set his sights on a more intimate sort of film. Peter's Friends is a slice-of-life story about the reunion of six
once-close friends ten years after their last get-together as a group of rather
bawdy, cross-dressing, singing and dancing party entertainers. Needless to say,
each of them has changed, and not always for the better.
At
its best, Peter's Friends is warm,
touching, and funny. At its worst, it's annoying and preachy. Fortunately,
there are many more moments in the former category than in the latter. The
film's characters are generally well-realized, although the script has a
tendency to rely on clichéd situations to give them depth. There's Roger &
Mary (Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton), a married couple who
nine months earlier had lost one of their twin boys, and are still grieving, and
overprotective of their one son. There’s Peter (Stephen Fry), a bisexual male who is no longer sexually active – we
find out why not. There’s Maggie (Emma
Thompson), a lonely woman who is desperately in search of a husband.
There’s Sarah (Alphonsia Emmanuel), a
young, sensual, commitment-phobic sex addict who has brought along Brian (Tony Slattery), her newest boy toy of
two weeks. And there’s Carol (Rita
Rudner), a snobbish, career-obsessed TV soap opera actress who has put her
fame before her marriage to the alcoholic, script-writing Andrew (Kenneth
Branagh).
Emma
Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, Stephen Fry and Alphonsia Emmanuel are
all impressive and give straight-from-the-heart performances. While Branagh is
good, he does a better job as director than actor. His portrayal of Carol’s husband
Andrew is fine, but his work behind the camera is more noteworthy. For example,
there are several effective long, single-take camera shots without cuts or
edits that dramatically enhance the film’s feeling of familiarity and even
intimacy.
Rita
Rudner and Tony Slattery turn their characters into caricatures and really do
not enhance the film. In Rudner’s case, since she co-wrote it with her husband,
co-producer Martin Bergman, it’s
likely that Branagh was obliged to give her a role. Not only does she overact
as Carol, but her character stands out as gratingly unpleasant. Without her, Peter's Friends would have been
considerably less abrasive.
The
soundtrack is one of the centerpieces of Peter's
Friends. The use of certain songs, such as Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World over
the opening credits and Queen's You're My
Best Friend, are effective in establishing a mood, but some of the pieces
seem to have been inserted just to get them into the film.
If
there is anything lacking in Peter's
Friends it is the screenplay, which is of inconsistent quality, affecting
both tone and pacing. In addition, there is absolutely no memorable dialogue
so, when the film ends and the credits roll, we have nothing to take away with
us. Comparisons with The Big Chill
(1983) are natural, and Peter’s Friends
inevitably suffers terribly by comparison. The film demonstrates that no matter
how talented the director and the cast, you cannot create a truly memorable
film from a mediocre screenplay. Nevertheless, if you enjoy British romantic
comedy/drama, films like Four Weddings
and a Funeral or Love Actually,
you will probably enjoy Peter’s Friends.
Labels:
comedy, drama, reunion, romance
