Comedy about the classes - but not that classy (Relative Values (DVD))

Member Name: cswann

Product:	Relative Values (DVD)
Date:	03/12/04 (229 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good cast

Disadvantages: Unimaginatiev direction, Not all that funny, Julie andrews is miscast

I acquired the DVD of “Relative Values” as a free gift with some magazine or other.
I hadn’t heard of the movie at all, and it languished unplayed for a good few months.
The cover claims that it’s “outstandingly funny”. And it boasts a good cast – with names like Colin Firth, Stephen Fry, Julie Andrews, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. So I last decided to give at a go.

I found it very tedious, and too slow. I began to lose interest in the characters and the story after about 20 minutes, but I stuck the whole movie out.
Overall, I thought it was very dull, superficial and not even very much fun. As for “outstandingly funny” – well, perhaps I’d go so far as to say it was mildly funny.

I’m not sure if I can easily pinpoint why I didn’t like “Relative values” – it’s not just that it’s not a very deep movie – but I think it may partly be its tone. Generally, it reminded me partly of a Merchant Ivory movie, yes (which I’m sure was the intention of the film makers), but more often it reminded me of a Sunday night TV series such as “The Royal” – very insubstantial and, in a way, a half-hearted kind of production.
The casting is fine, although I was not so sure about Julie Andrews in the role of an English Countess. I mean, she’s been living in the United States so long that her accent is no longer the true blue kind of accent you’d expect for an upper class. Someone like Geraldine James, would, I think, have been better in the role.

“Relative Values” is a Noel Coward play, and the film is fairly reflective of this – the direction doesn’t offer many more adventurous scenes than the usual period piece, and most of it is bound to the kind of scenes you would have in the theatre, whether it’s a drawing room, dining room, a garden. The characters are quiet stereotypical, and the dialogue is, as you would expect, witty, although of course much of it now sounds dated.
More so than, for instance, the plays of Oscar Wilde, in my opinion.

Central to the story is Nigel (played by Edward Atterton) and his relationship with new girlfriend, Miranda (Jeanne Tripplehorn). She’s a film star, and on the rebound from an affair with her one-time co-star, Don Lucas (played by William Baldwin, who really looks the part).
Miranda is American, brash and self-centred, by all appearances; Nigel is the Earl of Marshwood, heir to a country estate in England.
Julie Andrews is his mother, the Countess, and she disapproves of it all, naturally, thinking that her son can do far better than a movie star.
Colin Firth plays a minor character, Peter, nephew of the Countess, although his part is very well carried off – he’s always lounging around, has a few supposedly witty comments, and always has a knowing, smug smile on his face. Clearly this character is meant to be a Noel Coward type of character, commenting on the events. I must say enjoyed looking at his weird hairstyle, with that retro parting.

A better character, though, is that played by Stephen Fry, the butler in the house – who is well aware of everyone’s foibles (upstairs and downstairs) and is very honest about it when in the right company. Sophie Thompson plays Moxie, the maid who is so indispensable to the Countess.

Actually, so far, my description doesn’t make it all sounds so bad – and the cast is a good one, I think. So what was it that I didn’t like about “Relative Values”?

It looks glossy, and sumptuous, but somehow it’s lacking any real depth and, well… soul.
The humour is there, but comes mainly from the servants, Stephen Fry in particular. And it certainly is not “outstandingly funny”.

Eric Styles, the director, hasn’t made many movies – his debut “Dreaming of Joseph Lees”, made in 1999, also boasted a star-studded cast (Rupert Graves, Samantha Morton, Frank Finlay), and was very well received.

At 87 minutes, it’s really quite short, but overall, I still found it on the dull side.

DVD extras include a commentary from the director.
This is also rather dull, I’m afraid – it drones on a bit, and I didn’t learn a great deal more about the making of the film that was of much interest – apart from the fact that one of the ‘California’ hotel scenes was shot in the Isle of Man!

As I say, my copy of this was free with a magazine, but if you should wish to buy a copy, it will cost:
£12.99 at amazon.co.uk
£5.99 at play.com
£4.99 at sendit.com

If you like your movies along the Jeeves / Oscar Wilde / Upstairs Downstairs continuum – you should enjoy this, but probably not as much as you’d enjoy “The importance of being Earnest”.

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