Absolutely Fantastic

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Ironic that it doesn't do it so well. A very interesting story, themes and characters, but it was dealt with in far too episodic a fashion. You end up feeling you're dipping in and out of something that's happening, rather than experiencing it and travelling with it. Although the cinematography was good, it wasn't anything astounding either - it was nicely thought out but not groundbreaking or anything , so I don't understand why people are raving about that facet of the film here. All in all an enjoyable film, but a little self defeating as well. Apparently that's not a long enough review - so what else is there? The acting was great, the costumes were good - it didn't really feel like the early 80's to me, but then I wasn't in England at the time so what would I know! It could have been a pretty unique film if we travelled the journey more closely with the characters - connecting huge amounts of time in narrative drama is a challenge - but having black outs and characters remeeting and saying "i haven't spoken to you for 4 years" isn't the best way to do it! Of course you have to connect the story line dots, which is kind if fun, but you get too distant from the characters emotional journey.

One of th finest modern dramas enabling world class participants to push at the envelope at all stages of the play. Tha great bard would have been proud. Underlying the glorious production were performances of breathtaking beauty and honesty from the two leading players. Jodhi in particular played the sexually charged and profoundly confused "innocent" perfectly. The bubbling sexual tension brought the viewer closer to the set at every scene and created an atmosphere of chaos that was always fulfilled but in an unexpected way. In many ways it stands along side a modern day recreation of the Government Inspector (or perhaps a Comedy or Errors), a production that effortlessly achieves its goal of taking apart the pillars of accepted society and replaces them with an almost innocence of child like hope and opportunism (tinged with some unwanted and unforeseen brutality). A worlds class production. Well done to all involved.

Being one of Thatcher's children myself, whose working life began with the start of her premiership, I found this a fascinatingly photogenic look at this era. I don't remember the time as quite so pretty, but I do remember the disparity between the rich and the poor, which I think is part of the intention here. I enjoyed the acting, but at the beginning found Paul too annoying and unsympathetic as a character, but I warmed to him by the end, especially as Damian Lewis portrays his hippy phase beautifully. Jodhi May was also excellent. I recognised the big company ethos; consultants, dot-com boom, out with the old and thought that was very legitimate- think Marconi, fellow Brits- living down the road from its Head Office I did rather cringe as the big beast was destroyed. All in all I feel this was a rewarding piece to watch and definitely worthy of further study, so have bought the DVD!

I'd heard a lot of hype about Stephen Poliakoff and the trailer looked great, so I was anticipating something special. The first twenty minutes or so provide a brilliant set-up, and huge credit must go to the set-designers and costume people for incredible visuals.However, the film commits the cardinal sin of not bothering to give you any reason to like the characters. The two leads are stiff and monotonous (how can a man who has a threesome with two nubile blonds and hires thugs to gatecrash his own party be so ditch-water dull as Paul?) whilst the minor characters are given only the briefest of set-up scenes for us to get to know them before being referred to nostalgically for the rest of the film. What are we meant to think - oh yes, the boy we saw for two seconds holding a sparkler, how poignant to think he is now 40 and sitting in a café! Who cares!? Furthermore, there has been a definite decision to avoid the obvious path (I don't want to put a spoiler, but when you see it you'll know what I mean). This path would indeed have been obvious, yes, but it would have given some substance to the film, which is otherwise totally bland.A lack of consistency also pervades the characterisation, and rather than making the characters elusive and mysterious, it just makes them unbelievable. Would a man who has built a huge fortune from nothing be genuinely content to lose it all and live in squalor? Would a brilliant businessman really accept a huge salary to work as a consultant and then, 5 months later, simply utter a one-word plan and be confused as to why anyone thought this was insufficient? If so, why? If we aren't given an insight into his thinking process, all we can assume is that there is no real plan behind his character: he is just a mishmash of whatever dialogue the writer thinks is clever at the time...And if I haven't put you off yet, the final conversation between the two lead characters is about the stupidest thing I have ever heard in a "serious" movie.Friends and Crocodiles scrapes 3 points for the brilliant first 20 minutes and for the sets and costumes throughout, but unless you want a lesson in how not to do it, I really wouldn't bother.