Bright Young Things (2003)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Stephen Fry

Writers:

Stephen Fry (screenplay)
Evelyn Waugh (novel)

Release Date:

3 October 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Tagline:

Sex... Scandal... Celebrity... Some things never change.

Plot:

An adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies," is a look into the lives of a young novelist, his would-be lover, and a host of young people who beautified London in the 1930s.

Plot Keywords:

Money | 1930s | Major | Gossip | Customs

Awards:

10 nominations

Cast

Simon McBurney	...	Sneath (Photo-Rat)
Michael Sheen	...	Miles
Emily Mortimer	...	Nina Blount
James McAvoy	...	Simon Balcairn
Stephen Campbell Moore	...	Adam Fenwick-Symes
Stockard Channing	...	Mrs. Melrose Ape
Adrian Scarborough	...	Customs Officer
Jim Carter	...	Chief Customs Officer
Fenella Woolgar	...	Agatha
Dan Aykroyd	...	Lord Monomark
Julia McKenzie	...	Lottie Crump
Bruno Lastra	...	Basilio
David Tennant	...	Ginger Littlejohn
Jim Broadbent	...	The Drunken Major
John Franklyn-Robbins	...	Judge

MPAA:

Rated R for some drug use.

Runtime:

106 min | Canada:105 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | USA:R | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Eltham Palace, Court Road, Eltham, London, England, UK

Company:

Film Consortium, The

Trivia:

Director Stephen Fry commissioned two contemporary songs from The Pet Shop Boys for the movie - a cover version of Noel Coward's The Party's Over Now and a Pet Shop Boys-penned title track. These songs were written and recorded, but were edited out in the last minute because the director decided to stick to period music.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A television aerial can be seen on the right hand rooftops in the external shot of the hotel that Adam and Nina stay at.

Quotes:

Adam Fenwick-Symes: I say, this could be rather fun. I could even make up fashions. If I can't get Archie Shwert to wear suede shoes within a month, you can call me Diedre in public.
Nina Blount: Yellow suede shoes.
Adam Fenwick-Symes: Oh, Nina darling! You are a genius! And green bowler hats.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 2005 Glitter Awards (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Get Out & Get Under

An Acid Satire With Serious Pretensions

"Bright Young Things" is a mostly effective satire, with some jarring seriousness thrown in, of "Masterpiece Theater" Jazz Age costume dramas for its first seven-eighths.

Set in the same period as "Gosford Park," its conflicts are just within the sexual and financial eccentricities of the empty-headed leisure and wannabe leisure class, where titles don't match income or outflow.

It is more of a visual evocation of Noel Coward songs and incorporates some of his numbers, as well as original sound-alike songs. The frolics have some similarities to the simultaneous Weimar Republic portrayed in "Cabaret."

Stephen Campbell Moore as the protagonist is almost too good in his film debut, as his character's captivatingly serious eyes and demeanor conflict with his insouciant company, particularly Emily Mortimer as his dispassionate lover, though that justifies the stuck-on denouement, that even without having read the Evelyn Waugh book this is adapted from, "Vile Bodies," I can tell didn't have this too neat and comeuppance tying-up.

The most pointed parts of the movie are its acid documentation of the birth of the tabloid gossip press, including Dan Ackroyd as a Canadian press baron with a more than passing resemblance to today's lords of Fleet Street. James McAvoy is very good as a more upper-class betraying precursor to his scandal-seeking scion reporter in the mini-series "State of Play," and manages to seem like a real person, unlike so many of the characters who are just types or plot conveniences.

The production design and costumes are delightful.