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Rating:  -
As the story opens, a British traitor describes the beginnings of his rebellion at a posh public school in the 1930s. In the flashback, we follow classmates Guy and Tommy (Rupert Everett and Colin Firth); Guy is struggling with hiding his homosexuality and Tommy is a budding Marxist.
This fictionalized account of infamous spy Guy Burgess' youth is a fascinating look at that very British institution, the public school with its young aristocrats luxuriating in their privileged lives. Though the movie moves very slowly and has little action, I still enjoyed the ambiance and the gorgeous scenery in and around Oxford. Everett and Firth are amazingly young and give excellent performances. It is interesting to see a youthful Earl Spencer playing one of the students and some filming was even done at Althorp, the Spencer home.
On the downside, the story fails to fully explain why Guy became a Russian spy and his "old man" hair and make-up are truly ridiculous, but I still recommend the movie as an enjoyable look at traditional school life. 3.5 stars.
Rating:  -
The Bottom Line:
This stellar film adaptation of Julian Mitchell's play theorizes that the overwhelming snobbery, hypocrisy, and cold-blooded elitism that fueled British public schools directly led to "the Cambridge Five" betraying British secrets to the Soviet Union; totally involving and displaying a rare grasp of character, Another Country is a film to make 90 minutes for.
3.5/4
Rating: -
This film has multiple levels of involvement for everyone. Following the playwright's original intent (via the DVD's special features), it's much more a commentary or observation on British life and society over the decades as anything else. It's obviously directed square at Eton College, but for my money, doesn't ever go overboard. Yes, they had fags, young boys who did things at the behest of the older boys, but they are not portrayed as being at all abused. Yes, they caned each other, but the film does not make it sound anything more than the kinds of punishments that are meted out by judicial systems to adults later on in their lives, in other words, life at Eton (and other similar schools) is really all just a metaphore for actual later adult living.
The visuals are fantastic, the dialogue thoughtful. The characters are rather stereotyped, but that is quite necessary I think. The film is most certainly not a gay film per se, but does clevery allow that society has gay folk and they must play a part. Bennett is gay, but that really has nothing to do with his moody presence. He wants too much from his culture before he is due, much like today's youth. Harcourt, his lover, is fancifully innocent of all this. Characters like the hated Fowler are all too real and in fact are the most honest of them all. Barkley portrays what I think is much more realistic, a prefect who wants others to trust him and he would never betray anyone. All in all, a great movie, a classic of British film in my opinion.
Rating:  -
It is odd what Cannes would allow in 1984. Among them a British film at the cusp of the British Film Movement about a group of closeted homosexual boys, unwilling to leave the comfort of their university, of which one eventually becomes the coveted Russian spy Guy Burgess (or at least a small transgression). On several top ten lists of international critics, this viewer had trouble understanding the overall tones, themes, and relative points to the film. Was this a simple love story? Was this film created to symbolize the unsympathetic, yet hypocritical views of homosexuality? Was this a story about a scorned man and his distaste for what fellow Englishmen made him do? Who knows! Hating the idea of so many questions without answers, I challenged myself to watch this film a second time to ensure that obvious points were not being missed, and it faltered yet again. "Another Country" is a hodgepodge of different ideas, social inconsistencies, and covered with an obscure layer of homosexuality. It is a film about nationalism, about education, about love - but it never even scratches the surface of any of these - it just puts them on the table and expects the viewer to "get it". As an outsider looking in, I was confused by the structure of the school, the intertwined love connections, and the purpose behind the bookends with the aging Everett. "Another Country" was dull, trite, and overly presumptuous of itself without giving the viewer any foresight into the world created. It is a dated film about a culture that doesn't exist everywhere, yet oddly the DVD does.
Insult my intelligence if you must, but what sort of education were these students receiving? For the course of 90 minutes, students read book nonchalantly, played dress up for the guard, insulted little boys, ran out of windows, spent money, yelled about Marxism, and made out with each other. There was no visible structure; outside of being caught doing something wrong would mean lashes by the "Gods" of the House. There were no teachers, there were no assignments, and there were no exams that one could see, merely the openness to allow these students to do whatever they wanted to with rules that seemed as archaic as this film. Twenty-four years later, being an American with a structured University understanding, I was confused by this example. This was a major issue with this film, because instead of focusing on the underlying themes, I was too caught up in the basic structure of this school. It starts with a "teacher" finding two students making out, but from there these "teachers" become mere spirits of the mind - looming in the background as threats, but never seen. From a believable standpoint, I was disappointed. The confusion muddled the point, and the misunderstanding of how anyone could choose to stay longer merely to become a "God" of a house left the central focus lost in my eyes.
With the unexplainable introduction to British education bewildering me at every turn, I must also question the validity of director Marek Kanievska's choice to bookend this film with an aging Everett attempting to explain his reason for being a traitor by using his boyhood school days as an analogy of life and love. Was it necessary to convey the story by using a real historical figure as the narrator? This initially gave me a false impression of what this film would be about. I assumed it would be about his turn to Russia, while instead it focused on his love of Harcourt (a very floppy Cary Elwes) and disgust for hypocritical friends. The use of the bookends felt like it gave the film a more authentic feel at first, but when they were revisited at the end, I felt slightly cheated and still confused. Did the reporter get her story? What story was she after? Should "Another Country" have this many questions upon its conclusion? Perhaps the play was better structured, but as a film adaptation, I must admit it fails.
Leading us through the murkiness of "Another Country" are currently well respected actors in the British community. Colin Firth plays the only strong character in this entire film, Tommy Judd. His hatred for everything really exemplified my feelings about this film, which is why I connected to him the most. He was the Salinger-esque character that was well defined, strong, and understandable. The rest, well, the rest were as disappointing as this film. Everett was as weak as a wet paper towel. His character was unknown, attempting to be himself as well as a character, I kept seeing Everett be Everett - he was never Guy Bennett (Burgess - whatever!). The bewilderment of where Madonna was kept me at bay, but the sure comic genius of the film was that of Cary Elwes playing someone who caught the attention of Everett - somehow. Everett seems to attempt to play a smart, charismatic student that bends the rules and flaunts his homosexuality; Elwes is completely different - if one could even say that. He is awkward, boring, and honestly, a nothing. He is not a character, not Harcourt, not Elwes, nothing. During a first time dinner where Everett attempts to pour out his story about his romantic death of his father, Elwes responds with a grunt of a "No way" or something along those trivial lines. Elwes is reminiscent of a dog in this film, no real motive; he just follows Everett around pushing the plot into another dismal avenue.
Overall, "Another Country" was a disappointment. The lack of a focused direction, informative introduction, and defined characters sunk this film before it even had the opportunity to leave port. The characters were abysmal. A pre-Mr. Darcy Firth was fun to watch, but everyone else played themselves out of character, out of entertainment. This was a film about so many ideas that no real idea was able to surface. The onslaught of homosexuality was impressive to see in a film released in 1984, but midway through the feature it became cliché. Having recently viewed Alan Bennett's "The History Boys" as well as read the play, it was tough to watch "Another Country" sink into the water. Why couldn't there be teachers that understood, students that were less forceful with their homosexuality (perhaps just seeing it as the norm), and loves that broke the barriers, instead of jumping out of nowhere. Being a Cannes Best Film nominee, I had high hopes for this film, but the lack of everything solid soured it immediately. Kanievska's direction was more made-for-TV than worth of film. "Another Country" was just another cliché British schoolboy film that went nowhere, gave us lucid characters, and confused us by being too smart than what it is. Could not suggest it to anyone, nor would I!
Grade: * out of *****
Rating:  -
I was bored to tears!!! This is a real lackluster movie. Dialogue poor, cinematography ordinary and the acting boring. Believe me, you can't wait to see this sleeper....yawn!
F.Poe
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