鈥楾he Party鈥� has great cast, somewhat negligible story
In its themes and tone, it resembles a minor-league distillation of Edward Albee and Woody Allen.
In its themes and tone, it resembles a minor-league distillation of Edward Albee and Woody Allen.
Writer-director Sally Potter鈥檚 鈥淭he Party鈥� is a brisk, black-and-white, worst-possible-case dinner party scenario overflowing with good actors and bad vibes. In its themes and tone, it resembles a minor-league distillation of Edward Albee and Woody Allen, but at least there are those performers to look at: Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall, Bruno Ganz, Patricia Clarkson, Cillian Murphy, Cherry Jones, and Emily Mortimer.
Scott Thomas is playing Janet, recently appointed to the position of England鈥檚 new shadow minister of health, and her guests are a motley crew of civilized savages. Ganz is very funny as Gottfried, the befuddled 鈥渓ife coach鈥� who attempts to rouse Janet鈥檚 husband, played by Spall, out of a morbid stupor. As Gottfried鈥檚 girlfriend, Clarkson has the most viperish quips. Pistols are proffered, drugs are ingested, and alarming personal confessions arrive right on cue. It鈥檚 all somewhat negligible, but not unfunny. I hope Potter does not intend us to take these carryings-on for a microcosm of bourgeois British ills.聽Grade: B- (Rated R for language and drug use.)