An Awfully Big Adventure

Young stage-struck Stella (Georgina Cates) has bright dyed red hair and lives with her aunt and uncle (Rita Tushingham and Alun Armstrong, both very good) in run-down Liverpool. She joins a theatre group where she isn't required to do very much and develops a crush on vain director Meredith (Hugh Grant, better than usual) and a half-contempt for the other members of the company (including a wicked parody of the professional ham from Edward Petherbridge). When flamboyant actor PL O'Hara (Alan Rickman, excellent) arrives to play Captain Hook in a new production of Peter Pan, his fate becomes entangled with Stella's in a way neither of them could have predicted. This movie veers from a sharp set of character studies of provincial theatre to a weird and twisted love story with a tragic resolution. Aside from the main story, there are two lovely support roles for Prunella Scales and Peter Firth. The one problem in the cast is Cates, whose background was in TV sitcom and it shows.

Whatever you do, do not-I repeat, do not watch An Awfully Big Adventure with your father. Gents, do not watch this movie with your daughter. I don't care if one of your greatest childhood memories is going to see Peter Pan with your dad, or if both of your favorite actor is Alan Rickman, don't watch it together. You will be so sorry, but spoilers prevent me from telling you why.

I rented this movie thinking it would be fantastic. Released the same year as Sense and Sensibility, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant team up again in a film about a theater troupe and its eccentricities. Coming from a theatrical family and having spent my fair share of time in that world as well, I always like watching movies that depict it accurately. Georgina Cates stars as the young ingenue in search of connection and a mature role model. She joins a theatrical production of Peter Pan, but she soon learns that theater people aren't any more well-adjusted than she is. She first develops a crush on the director, Hugh Grant, but he's not very nice and isn't interested in her at all. Alan is far nicer to her, and she winds up in his bed instead.

The acting in this movie is very good. If you don't have a daughter, or if you don't have Daddy-issues, and you love dark movies with good acting, you'll probably like this one. Georgina Cates, a newcomer to the big screen, truly embodies the lost, emotionally wounded qualities of her character. Hugh Grant deviates from his usual screen persona, and his snippy, cold delivery is very convincing. Alan Rickman, who's always great, puts so much into this role. Playing an "actor" stepping into a small production and making an impression on a youngster, while showing the audience that he's not worthy of her hero worship, takes a lot of nuances during every scene. His performance is flawless, but the story might be too upsetting for you to want to watch.

The story is extremely dark, but as it's set amidst a theatrical background, it's very good. It feels like it could have been adapted from a classic opera, and I'm almost tempted to read Beryl Bainbridge's original novel. If you've never seen either Hugh or Alan in a film, or you really like them, you might not want to rent this one. Stick with Sense and Sensibility instead, since it also has great acting and a good story, and it's not upsetting. Hopefully this movie won't ruin Peter Pan for you, but chances are you won't forget it as long as you live.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to nudity, graphic sex scenes and upsetting subject matter involving a child, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

This is one of the better films about theatre and what it does to some people. It resembles "The Dresser" in atmosphere to a certain extent, and in the portrayal of many of its characters. Both are set in Northern England during the 1940s, in rather faded theatres. Characters from one film could quite easily have inhabited the other. Here however we follow primarily the journey of a stage-struck young girl as she enters the strange and often unpredictable world of a repertory theatre -her own awfully big adventure. Note the irony of the title. Secret desires and yearnings linger under the surface, bitchiness and petty jealousy escort humour and the spirit of "the show going on" no matter what. It is however quite a dark film, and bravely allows us to get to know characters who are unsympathetic but not altogether unlikable. Alan Rickman underplays beautifully as always, and a restrained Hugh Grant demonstrates his considerable skill as a character actor. This is one of the most interesting of all his screen performances. Georgina Cates gives a stunning performance of the innocent (but not THAT innocent) girl drawn into the world of the theatre, and the supporting cast are faultless. Prunella Scales, Carol Drinkwater and Peter Firth deserve special salutes however. Lots to like here, but it is not at all a feel good movie. Nor is it meant to be.

The likely reason people don't like this film is because it was released by Miramax who are infamous for mis-marketing their tough sell pictures ("Muriel's Wedding" was a feel good, laugh a minute romantic comedy? "Captives" was a thriller!). This movie isn't a sweet coming of age story. It's a devastating account of a young woman's loss of innocence in a cruel world.

I tend to really like the movies most people find too depressing. Like the ancient Greeks I find human tragedy the greatest form of emotional catharsis. If you are the same way I recommend this film highly.

The real hub around which this movie moves is not Hugh Grant or Alan Rickman but Georgina Cates as Stella, an unpaid sixteen year old student who is not only stagestruck but enamored of Meredith Potter (Hugh Grant), the cruel and thoughtless director who is more interested in boys.

Stella, ignorant of most of life, is unaware of his predilictions and so ill-informed she is afraid she might have a venereal disease from touching a man with her hand. Having been abandoned by her mother (who is the voice on the phone giving the time), she is being raised by her aunt and uncle, well-meaning people who love her but have no idea of what to do with her or tell her. Eventually she is seduced by P.L. O'Hara (Alan Rickman), who has come to Liverpool to play Captain Hook but also to once again look for the woman who bore him a child many years before. He imagines he has a son and that belief allows him to continue, despite his lack of self worth.

He eventually succumbs to his own predilictions when he pursues Stella. She, having no idea of sex other than as something to be done to her, is a slow learner but eventually says that like "learning a ukelele, it takes practice." The Grant character is so thoroughly despicable it proves once and for all that Hugh Grant can, in fact, act. Rickman gives a well done, mostly underplayed performance, not even having a line in the first four scenes he is in. Georgina Cates is the real jewel here, with a combination of naivete and boldness, along with a girlish charm which makes Stella believable as well as pathetic. Not the greatest movie made but a well done, well cast piece of work by professionals with a sense of purpose. See it! But not for the children.