"Cakes and fine wines!" (Withnail And I (DVD))

Member Name: Rumblefish

Product:	Withnail And I (DVD)
Date:	09/08/00 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great dialogue, characters, visuals

Disadvantages: None

Don't let the fact that this is such a favourite with drama students put you off. It is that very rare thing in modern cinema - a brilliant British film.

Withnail (Richard E Grant) and his flatmate Marwood (Paul McGann) are struggling actors in 1969 Camden Town. Disillusioned by unemployment, excessive alcohol and drug use, and the rigours of London life, they decide to "rejuvenate" in a country cottage owned by Withnail's Uncle Monty. But this doesn't turn out to be quite the relaxing holiday they had planned...

Although WITHNAIL & I is hilariously funny, what makes it special are the unexpected moments of profundity intermingled with the humour. So while you'll probably never forget Withnail drinking lighter fluid, or trying to fake a urine test, you'll find his poignant, rain-soaked Hamlet recital that ends the film equally unforgettable. Similarly, the eminently quotable dialogue is sometimes obscene ("You can stuff it up your a*** for nothing, and f*** off while you're doing it!"), sometimes absurd ("We've gone on holiday by mistake!"), and sometimes deep ("Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day...")

Grant is brilliant as the tragi-comic Withnail, but McGann's understated performance is just as good, as are Richard Griffiths as Uncle Monty and Ralph Brown as crazed drug-dealer Danny. Writer-director Bruce Robinson expertly recreates a decaying England at the fag-end of the '60s, when the hippy dream was dying.

Much of the humour is broad and defiantly un-PC, and there are no female characters of note, but it would be nit-picking to suggest that WITHNAIL & I has any real weaknesses. A wonderfully sad and funny film.

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