Look Back in Anger
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Movie Reviews of Look Back in Anger
Movie Review: A great showing of this ground-breaking play
Summary: 4 Stars
John Osborne broke the mold of polite English drama with this "kitchen sink" story of frustration, class wars, betrayal, post-war malaise, and
personal failure. Branagh and Thompson, married at the time, not surprisingly show great personal chemistry, and are also completely believable in their roles of a woman who married down and a man who married up and who can't forgive either himself or his wife for his failures.Also keep your eye on the ironing board. This is a filmed version of the play; no added scenes of the great outdoors.
Movie Review: Good Actors in a bad play
Summary: 2 Stars
This is tough to review. The problem is that the cast is far better than the material they are given. The question is does the quality of the performance fix the basic problems of the play. I don't think it does.
John Osborne's play had some shock value in the 1950s. But the question, decades later, is if there is any deeper meaning than shock value which has gone cold. The core of the play is watching domestic abuse play out. We have a whining, self-pitying man taking out all his frustrations through abuse of his doormat wife.
The play is often described as being about class, but the only class aspect to it is that the wife comes from a better family. But I kind of got the impression that whatever her background, Jimmy would have treated her the same. The class difference seems not much more than another means for Jimmy to abuse her and cut her off from former friends and family.
Its difficult play to know what to do with. Because any political motives grafted on to Jimmy end up looking like the old excuses made for every loudmouth wifebeater. All Jimmy is missing is the alcoholism.
Branagh and Thompson do well with what they are given. But by the nature of the role, Thompson is of ocurse underutilized. Branagh's natural charisma almost makes Jimmy somewhat likeable. But given who and what Jimmy is, I don't know that its a good thing. Gerard Horan is also good as Cliff. The acting overall is at a whole different level than the Richard Burton film version from years ago.
The material is not really a film. Its like a filming of the stage play. Some people will like that, others may not.
All-in-all, this is the finest version available of a terribly flawed play. The actors are far above the material but they still can't really save it from its basic flaws.
Movie Review: A man verbally vomiting his disappointment and frustration
Summary: 2 Stars
The loudest character in the movie (Brannagh's) is tremendously self-absorbed and overflowing with self-pity. In his disappoint and frustration with (his) life, he demonstrates what is (at least in my experience) an extraordinary capacity for insensitivity and cruelty. This character seems to believe that his pain is the most important pain in the room.
I've read reviews of the play attributing this behavior to his lower class status. This is a mistake. Self-absorption, self-pity, insensitivity, and a willingness to hurt others are everywhere.
Watching this play through to the end required, for me, frequent use of the mute button and the fast forward button. Seeing one person strut about a room shouting vitriolic abuse at another is not my idea of entertainment. But Emma Thompson is a favorite actor of mine, so I bore with. I'm not a fan of Brannagh; his roles so often seem to include monologues and speeches.
For me, the wife's friend's immediately taking up with the (verbally) brutish husband is merely wishful thinking on the part of the playwright.
The second star on my rating is for Emma Thompson, who, in my judgment, rarely puts an acting foot wrong.