Director : Lone Scherfig
Writer : Laura Wade (play and adaptation)
Starring : Max Irons, Sam Claflin, Douglas Booth, Holliday Grainger
Morning everyone, hope you've had a good week. Once again we take a massive jump from last weeks review of Pride and find ourselves knee deep in the Riot Club.
I have to say I was very sceptical about this fantastic play about debauchery and class issues being adapted for the screen. When I first saw the cast list, it only deepened my nerves, a group of trendy good looking british actors playing a bunch of snobs who do not deserve to be glamorised at all.
My fears were realised before the film even begun. In the cinema a group of girls ran up to the poster (see left) screaming "Oh my god, he's so fit!" "Ahhhhh Douglas Booth" "I'm literally so excited for this film". I stood there watching in amazement as they asked someone to take a photo of them with the poster as a backdrop. I understand totally understand the fact that they clearly fancy the pants off these boys but surely they don't expect to worship the revolting characters they are about to portray. This poses a massive challenge for the actors, can they do enough to make the audience (predominately teenage girls) forget their looks and actually credit them for the skills they display. Its 50/50 for me, some of the actors deserve great acclaim for doing this, others rest on their laurels and are outshone as a result.
Lets look at the negatives first - The opening 30 or 40 minutes. Laura Wade's dialogue in the original play (Posh) was great but what has been added to bulk up the film's running time sticks out like a sore thumb. There's an incredibly pointless opening montage trying to explain the origins of this club but it just felt like a blur of overly posh accents and dire dialogue A whole new character is created named Lauren played by Holliday Grainger. She becomes the state school educated love interest of Miles (Max Irons). Grainger tries hard and I don't want to nit pick her performance because I don't think it should be there in the first place. It's very Hollywood for Miles, by far the most likeable of the boys, to fall for a state school girl who wants to drag him away from the group. She is not in the original play, which was a massive success, so why put her in. The cliché doesn't add anything.
There are also some genuinely cringe, look away now, moments such as Douglas Booth's ridiculous hair swish after he has defeated his opponent at fencing followed by winking at the girl who has rushed to his opponents aid. The worst of these though comes when Lauren and Miles are comparing the ways 'posh' and 'non-posh' people use different words while they lie entangled in each others arms. They both united on 'dick' being 'dick' as opposed to 'desert' and 'pudding' and seal it with a kiss.... a really lazy and un-amusing piece of writing. Some of the smaller parts really lack conviction, or maybe thats because their performances in no way match up to those of Sam Claflin, Irons and at points Booth.
Onto the positives. Sam Claflin being a massive one. I have to confess before this film I had him down as just a pretty face. My prejudice. I take it all back as this is an outstanding performance. Rarely in a film are my eyes drawn away from the person speaking but it happened on numerous occasions here. It's hard not too, Claflin is so in the moment its wonderful to watch. There is a fantastic anger building behind his eyes that is so evident through out the film that you are just waiting for him to explode. When Claflin does lose his cool it represents the best 30 minutes of the film, you forget about the pretty faces and focus totally on the brutality taking place in front of your eyes. The film takes no prisoners during the chaotic climax in the pub and I only wish this could have been the case the whole time.
There are some humorous moments to try and lighten the mood and some of them work to great effect namely Claflin trying to explain to a potential mugger that the 'N' in PIN actual stands for number so he is repeating himself by saying Pin number. I wont ever make that mistake again myself....
All in all Claflin's performance is worth going to see. A lot of very attractive actors are taken less seriously because of their looks, we could all do with giving them a break and focus on their acting talents.
Sorry for the slight delay in this week's review I had a massively busy monday and didnt get a chance to publish. Until next week, hopefully going to review Gone Girl which I'm already stupidly excited about....
Josef
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