Bright Young Things (2003, R)

 

This is a movie I’ve loved for years.  Not only is it cleverly written and stylishly directed by Stephen Fry, but it also introduced me to fine British actors such as Michael Sheen, Fenella Woolgar, and Stephen Campbell Moore.  Jammed with talent and excellently blending satire with drama, it’s one I deeply enjoy every time I see it.

 

Based on Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies, Bright Young Things dizzily follows the lives a group of wealthy young revelers in 1930s London.  Chief among them is Adam, who’s been living it up beyond his means and is in desperate need of cash.  He’s already spent the advance on the novel he’s writing, and when he loses the manuscript, he finds himself in a tight spot.  In hopes of earning enough money to marry his fiancée Nina, he takes a job as a gossip columnist writing about the sensational exploits of the rich and irresponsible, ie, his social circle.

 

It’s a difficult film to summarize because it’s pretty meandering – in a good way, though.  It twists and tilts like an amusement-park ride, as chaotic as it is exciting.  Adam is forever careening between elation and despair, squandering money in the time it takes him to call Nina with the happy news that he’s gained it.  He, Nina, and their friends (particularly the flamboyant Miles and the eccentric Agatha) spend their nights chasing a good time and their days trying to pass the time until sundown.  Their parties are a hectic jumble of music, drugs, costumes, sex, food, alcohol, and all-around excess, and the film really captures this sense of rudderless indulgence.

 

But of course, it’s not all partying all the time.  The newspaper is only in need of a new gossip columnist because of a scandal involving a post-dance tragedy, and just like Adam, the giddy highs of the “bright young things” are matched by the crushing lows.  The lives of the young people swirl with love and money woes, trouble with parents and the law, and a dangerous tendency to lose themselves in the madness.  As the characters are pitched, tossed, and hoisted by their own petards, you root for them to stay afloat.

 

For acting, I’ll start with those I mentioned above.  Stephen Campbell Moore (who made his film debut here) anchors the movie with his performance as Adam, equal parts humorous and earnest.  As Miles, Michael Sheen is outrageous, arch, and bearing absolutely no resemblance to his Tony Blair in The Queen.  Agatha is played with imminently-watchable panache by Fenella Woolgar (Agatha Christie from Doctor Who’s “The Unicorn and the Wasp.”)  The film also features James McAvoy, David Tennant, Emily Mortimer (who I later loved in Lars and the Real Girl,) Simon Callow (Charles Dickens from Who’s “The Unquiet Dead,”) Jim Broadbent, and a hilarious Peter O’Toole, plus non-Brits Dan Aykroyd and Stockard Channing.  And that’s just those whose parts are large enough to mention.  Jammed.  With.  Talent!

 

Warnings

 

Sexual content, lots of substance abuse (including smoking, drinking, and drug use,) and language.