Day 4: “Bright Young Things” – Bubbly Paparazzi Set in 1930s London…but Would Paris Fit In?

Film 4: “Bright Young Things” (2003)
Written and Directed by Stephen Fry
(adapted from Evelyn Waugh’s novel ‘Vile Things’ – great title!)

Problem: Poor – literally and figuratively – Adam Fenwick-Symes (Stephen Campbell Moore) hasn’t got enough ‘dosh’ to marry his darling society love Nina (Emily Mortimer). This is a real stinker, since she actually loves him back. His novel, already pre-sold, has been confiscated by Customs for being ‘dirty,’ and he hasn’t enough money to pay his hotel bill, much less finance the 1930s version of a jobless Carrie Bradshaw.

Solution: Gamble some easy winnings on a 30-1 horse to win. But leave a drunken major (Jim Broadbent) you’ve never met before to do it for you. As you do. Obviously, the money-man stumbles out of the parlor, stinking of sherry, not to be seen again until much later. How will you fill the gap? Shall you spy for a gossip mongering publisher (Dan Aykroyd)? Borrow money from future Daddy-kins-in-law (Peter O’Toole), clearly off his noodle? Or hope that your true love isn’t swayed by the bright shiny “pots” of money offered her by an old childhood sweetheart (David Tennant – respected Shakespearean actor, yes, but mostly awesome for being ‘Dr. Who’)?

Result: I’ll admit now that I’ll watch anything associated with Stephen Fry (‘Jeeves’, ‘Wilde’), and since he both wrote and directed this one, I couldn’t resist. I’ll also admit that I’d seen part of this on cable in fits and starts previously, but this was my first uninterrupted sitting. Bravo! Starting out, I felt at ease in the silly, light world of a British costume comedy – flapper parties, gin martinis and “dashing” dialogue. But the film steadily took me somewhere darker, as the luster of the inter-war period wears thin. Hitler’s shadow looms just ahead, and the constant cocaine sniffing and frenzied drive to ‘party or die trying’ morph from a goofy ragtime pulse to a droning white noise. To help create this, Fry relies on the party-sequence, swirling camera effect quite a lot, but he doesn’t need to. The point is made with greatest effect by his supporting characters’ downfalls – in pitch-perfect performances by James McAvoy (the young Mr. Dreamboat from last year’s “Atonement”), Fenella Woolgar (a woman whose face makes you understand where the ‘horsey’ description of the aristocracy originates – and yet she’s strikingly beautiful here), and Michael Sheen (currently starring as ‘Frost’ in “Frost/Nixon”). A bit of a downer, but still, I appreciated the frothiness dissipating after a while. It kept me watching, laughing, and most of all, thinking.

I wonder…would a film about the Lindsay Lohan set would do the same?