The Hippopotamus

A lovely film, very good story which you would expect from a movie based on a Stephen Fry novel. Roger Allam is brilliant as always and the supporting cast a joy. The film may not to be to everyone's taste and some of the scenes are not for people who may be easily offended. Make yourself a cup of tea, get some nibbles and settle down to watch a well written and well acted fim.

A clapped out poet brings his powers of perception to an English country house acclaimed for its miraculous cures, and finds more than he bargained for ...

Lovely doff of the cap to English detective fiction, although it finds much humour in declining to avert its gaze from the nonsense of the convention. The theme of miracle cures is important, so the one scene of emotion toward the end matters a lot - I didn't feel it, maybe because the moment of death was never addressed thematically. Hey - it's a country estate, built on the deaths of others.

The pace and humour are good, and the hero is perfectly smashed and detached. The weakness is in the supporting characters - not the performances, but their drama and the necessity of their presence. No great turns or lines, and I guess that's down to the original writing.

Music and sets are gorgeous, editing keeps it clipping along.

Overall: Insightful and entertaining, not so dramatic.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable film. Surfing Netflix for something decent to watch when I chanced upon The Hippopotomus, having not heard of it. What a nice surprise! Delightfully funny and tender, without being soppy. The narrative was pure Frye wit...brilliant...smart and so funny. So nice to not be bored by stupid slapstick, but laugh out loud at the fab script. I just loved this film.

I could feel Stephen Fry in the leading role, that's how good Roger Allam is. He also carried the movie through the slow beginning. The story is intriguing, fun, sad, and happy, all at the same time. It's a shame I hadn't heard of it until I happened upon it while browsing the free section of Amazon Prime. Well worth a watch, as long as one is not very religious or uptight.

Don't expect a hilarious comedy or so because it isn't but there are some funny moments, especially by the spoken words. You can clearly hear Stephen Fry speaking through Ted Wallace, a waterfall of words, sometimes harsh and sometimes funny. Ted Wallace did a good job playing his character, a lost soul that drinks way too much, investigating what could be a miracle curer. The rest of the cast all contributed in their way to the story. A story that might not be for everybody, like the reviews and ratings clearly shows, but if now and then you like the complexity of the English language instead of the usual stuff you might enjoy this movie. It's worth watching once in my opinion.