Product description

Plenty (1985)

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Average customer rating: 3.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5014138300234
Label : Cinema Club
Manufacturer : Cinema Club
Publisher : Cinema Club
Release date : 2006-06-26
Title : Plenty (1985)
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 15 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Region code : 2
Running time : 123
Studio : Cinema Club

Customer reviews

review by: rohirim date: 2008-09-14 rating:

Plenty of sighs
Plenty, is the sad and terribly unconvincing story of English woman Susan Traherne's life during and after WWII. Entirely crafted by Fred Schepisi, from a play by David Hare, Plenty portrays Susan's life, from the dangers and excitements of Resistance fighter in France to the twenty or so following years of boredom, disillusion and bourgeois existence. Determined to change the world, Susan returns to England, only to face a vacuous society, far more concerned by coping with reality than to change it. Susan is supposed to have lived such an intense and meningful life (dangers, excitements, passionate love and worth-to-die-for feelings and gestures) during her Resistance years in France, that she has become unfit to reality. All very good, at least if you want to buy it. True, Meryl Streep is an excellent actress and she can twist your heart with one simple blink of the eye. She is a true professional, but that may very well be the problem. Let me explain. Susan is supposed to be (or have been anyway) a passionate and warm woman, with a thing for danger - One of her less convincing lines at the end of the movie, when she says "I have a weakness, I like to lose control". She will have us believe that she speaks French (she says to the man who will later become her lover "Your French is not very good", but hey, neither is hers) and that she really cares for others' problems and needs. From that point on, Schepisi and Streep do try their best to portray Susan's struggle, as she tries to cope with the emptiness of her new life in post-war Britain. The problem is that Streep's character is spoiled, selfish and self-indulging to put it nicely. Her long-suffering - and almost to the point of lunacy - husband, Raymond Brock (Charles Dance) tells her at the end of the movie, that "she can't bear other people's ability to find happiness in other ways than hers". And her lover, Mick (Sting) accuses her of being selfish and rude, almost dangerous. All true alas. Even worse, she manages to be snobbish and hysterical at the same time, while we are desperately trying to find one good reason to sympathize with her fate. The fact is, she is never loveable, to the point that have us wonder who is the person she strives to free from political and social cynism. Was she ever there in the first place? And if yes, would she have one loveable feature in her makeup? No guaranty at all. Having written all this about Streep's unsuccessful performance, it is probably true that she did her best with Schepisi's screenplay. But let's face it, the first part of the movie (Susan's life during WWII) is far too sketchily rendered to have us sympatize with her later bad ways. Her one-time war lover (Sam Neill) turns out to be a dull and very common man, while the political and social aspects of the movie seem to be reduced to one or two good lines (Ian MacKellan, as the English diplomat who explains to Susan that "attitude is the only thing Britain has left", or John Gielgud a-propos the Suez crisis "at least we would have ruined it honestly"). At the end of the movie, Susan is shown in a flashback, standing in a sunny French meadow, looking at the view and saying "I have climbed the hill to have a better view". This might very well be the truest and more meningful moment of the film, when we realize (hopefully Susan too) that much has been lost in the aftermath of the war, but if you manage to climb higher than yourself, chances are you will no longer make plenty of sighs.

review by: date: 2008-08-05 rating:

A beautiful but sour-hearted confection
Brilliantly created, finely scripted, beautifully acted by a who's who of British (and American) character actors, amazing to look at, a perfect gem of a movie... yet strangely unsatisfying. Or should that read 'dissatisfying'?

Much as I admire David Hare for his skilfull stage masterpieces, I can't help feeling that he's created here a confection consisting of a series of ornate historical set pieces, rather like a Christmas present wrapped with layers of brightly-coloured paper and ribbon, at the heart of which is a rather sour plum. Ultimately, it's a cynical and sour-hearted film, giving Meryl Streep the opportunity to act her cotton socks off and in the process go totally off the rails in some style, but strangely incoherent too.

The narrative gave little opportunity for the audience to feel sympathetically about any character, only to allow the post-war nostalgia to wash over you like a wet sponge. Don't expect to come out feeling any sense of euphoria, though. Hare drains any positive feeling like a barrowload of leeches. Watch - but enjoyment is at a premium.

review by: The Speechwriter date: 2006-07-14 rating:

Sublime English nostalgia
I first saw this film when I was about 17, I remember it but I'm not sure why I would have liked it. But 20 years later I can see its real beauty.

It's about hopes and aspirations. The intensity of youth that tails off, becoming frustration and boredom. This is one of those classic English films, depicting a class and its cruelties. The problem of living for yourself or making sacrifices for others. Meryl Streep is beautiful: poised, elegant, brittle, mad. I'd forgotten what a genius John Gielgud was - his comedy turns are so polished.

Charles Dance as the emotionally limited Englishman is very good. Tracey Ullman and Sting play bit parts very well.

I've watched it twice on DVD and seen more equisite details each time. And the music is haunting and fabulous, too.

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