Wilt

Griff Rhys Jones plays the part of poor Henry Wilt perfectly for me, in a film that stays closer to the book than most do.

The rest of the performers are well cast too, especially the characters of Sally and Eva, who are exactly as I imagined them. I guess you can't go wrong with Alison Steadman though, and Diana Quick was just as believable. Their relentless attempts to undermine and, basically, destroy Wilt add pathos to what would otherwise be a straightforward comedy in a most effective way.

My favourite parts though have to be Wilt's interactions with the 'students' and especially with Inspector Flint and the psychiatrist. His intellectual superiority shines through, and to me is absolutely hilarious.

There is some wonderfully hammy melodrama in the church/churchyard scene later in the film, just to round things off nicely. What more could you ask for?

Wonderful entertainment.

I remember looking forward to this just before it came out at the cinema. Great book, great comedy duo and the ever reliable Alison Steadman - what could possibly go wrong! Sadly, an hilarious book doesn't automatically make an hilarious film. As the film is quite faithful to the book its hard to spot it's failings - I wonder if it would have worked better if Mel Smith & Griff Rhys Jones' roles had been reversed? Like the early Morecambe & Wise films, this film demonstrates that without the right material, great comic talent can be left floundering. Toss in the bland 80s soundtrack, very lack lustre direction and adult humour which comes across more Harrison Marks skin-flick than slapstick and this is the result.

I was looking forward to this film, because I'm a big fan of Tom Sharpe's novels. At the same time I was rather apprehensive as well. This is a comedy, and comedy movies are made these days with a family audience in mind. Tom Sharpe's novel Wilt certainly does not fit into this bracket and so I expected some dreaded compromises.

Inevitably, they came. Of course, the film still has a US R-rating and a UK 15 rating, but this has more to do with the intrinsic adult nature of the basic material than with the film makers' attempts to preserve the spirit of the novel. The whole thing still felt much too sanitised, too toned down, too understated. Part of the problem might have been that filming faithfully the original story would have made some middle-aged established actors and actresses occasionally prance around in the buff, simulate drug abuse, and molest each other, but the story really needed a higher dosage of excessiveness.

But I didn't. Watching it again 23 years after release ( omg where did that time go ! ) -

I loved the book and the film is good at matching the general rule of not being as good as the book. But this time I've watched it with the book as a distant memory and I have to say I enjoyed the film .

OK things look a bit dated and the 80s fashion looks laughable but that just adds to the humour . My only disappointment and wish is that they made the remaining WILT books into films too .

The casting of Smith & Jones into the lead male roles is genius and Alison Steadman plays the overbearing wife to a 't' . Watch it with LOW expectations and you'll enjoy it :) -Pad.A

Many reviewers seem to have missed the point of this film. It was a vehicle for the talents of Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith who were the top TV comedy team of the period. This film even incorporates one of their trademark comedy sketches,where they face each other in profile whilst carrying on a comedy dialogue.

So the novel they used was just a peg on which to hang their comedy characters. It has its funny moments.

In fact it is probably the best of their films. Morons from outer space didn't even achieve a cinema release The film actually performed reasonably in the UK but sank without a trace elsewhere.