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Rating:  -
Another Country, while very entertaining, lacks the necessary elements of a really good plot. Most of the men in the movie are beautiful and that makes it difficult to know which ones were involved in homosexual activity and which ones were not.
Rupert Everett was very young during the making of this film and to be honest his Oscar Wilde films (The Important of Being Ernest and An Ideal Husband) are far superior to this one.
Gay people can oooh and aaah over the pretty boys; but there's never any actual homosexual activity--not even kissing that would make this move more enticing to watch.
Colin Firth has gone on to do wonderful films. This role was a little weird in that he had what I call a speech impediment.
Rating:  -
A number of the British elites betrayed their country on behalf of the Communist utopian dream. They were the upper crust of the establishment---and above suspicion. Few ever considered the possibility that these scoundrels might possibly pose a security threat. Their leftist political views during their university years was shrugged off as not of great importance. "Another Country" is a fictional account of how these narcissistic individuals may have been seduced into joining Stalin's crusade for world domination. Both Rupert Everett and Colin Firth give fine performances.
This film increased my hostility towards traitors like Kim Philby, Donald MacLean, and America's own Alger Hiss. Such well educated adults had no long-term excuse for ignoring the hard evidence regarding the horrors of Communism. They were not mere useful idiots, but also cold and indifferent human beings. No, I did not feel sorry for them. They deserve only our contempt.
Rating:  -
I truly wanted to love this movie. The one thing it is definitely not short on is potential. The ending however is one of the sorriest I've ever witnessed and leaves way too many unanswered questions. Although it is in English, the accents are extremely heavy and hard to understand, which makes it difficult at best to keep up with the plot.
In a shabby apartment in Moscow, an American journalist asks a retired spy why he betrayed his country and defected to Russia 50 years ago. The answers take them back to 1932, where in the closed atmosphere of a British Boy's School, young Guy Bennett (Rupert Everett) realizes his attraction for his classmates is more than a passing phase.
There, in an environment permeated by desire and in the wake of a gay classmates suicide, Bennett falls desperately in love with a younger student, James Harcourt (Cary Elwes) and is introduced to marxism by Tommy Judd (Colin Firth), his most loyal friend.
Rupert and Elwes shine in their performances and the rest of the cast of wonderful actors makes for a lot of eye candy. There is some male nudity, although not nearly enough and a tender romance is budding in the confines of secrecy that is a delight to watch. A beautiful setting helps make this film very enjoyable if you can understand what's going on. Other than the ending, and the thick dialogue, this is an enjoyable film. I do recommend it but I also recommend you keep expectations low, as not to be greatly disappointed. I cannot however recommend it as highly as I would have liked. You will have to fill in about 50 years of the plot with your own imagination, but perhaps that's the kind of ending other people like. I found it disappointing, but I also enjoyed the movie.
Rating: -
This movie is based on a play by Julian Mitchell [who went on to write the screenplays for Vincent & Theo and the wonderful Wilde], loosely based on the life of Guy Burgess, who became a Russian spy, and defected to Russia in 1951. He was a member of the "Cambridge Spy Ring," four former Cambridge students [including Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby] who became spies for the KGB. Three of the four were homosexual.
This entire spy background would be easy to miss entirely if you didn't already know about it, but it adds a great deal to the meaning of the movie. The movie begins in 1983 Moscow with Rupert Everett in old age makeup playing the elder Guy Bennett being interviewed by a British reporter. The majority of the movie is an extended flashback to an unnamed boys' college in the 30s.
It would seem that homosexuality at the college is rampant, and tacitly accepted, so long as it does not become known. Toward the beginning of the movie, a boy is discovered humping another boy--and ends up hanging himself rather than face expulsion, and the disapproval of his parents. This leads to a renewed crack-down on homosexuality at the school, though the students don't want to stop, and it is widely known that pretty much every student engages in it. It is accepted as just `part of what boys do,' but the students are expected to give it up and marry a woman upon graduation. What's more, none of these boys are considered truly homosexual, this is just a phase they're going through.
Rupert's Guy becomes aware of the blond Harcourt [Elwes], and pretty much becomes obsessed with him. He is much more forthright with his attraction than any of the other students dare to be, which he plays off through a disdain of the other students and an extremely high queenly attitude. Soon enough he and Harcourt are laying in each other's arms and [presumably] having sex. At this point Guy begins really pushing the system, for example waving in an extremely obvious fashion to Harcourt across the yard, which Harcourt just ignores. Guy seems to be enraged at having to engage in the hypocrisy of pretending like nothing is going on between the boys, when everyone knows perfectly well that it is. He is furious at being punished for merely acknowledging what everyone knows is a fact. He is also highly steeped in the communist beliefs of his friend Judd [Firth], and both of these will combine to strongly foreshadow his conversion to KGB spy after the close of the film.
SPOILERS>>> Toward the end there is a long struggle for power and position at the school. At first Guy is unaffected, as he threatens to expose the homosexual activities of the other students if they dare act against him. But in the end, concrete evidence of his homosexuality is procured and submitted to the headmasters, thus rendering him unable to be promoted to the next ranking in the school's caste. One is left to surmise that the harsh punishment meted out for being unable to play along with the hypocrisy of the system, as well as his immersion in the communist beliefs of his roommate, crystallized into a contempt for his own country which led directly to his ultimate decision to become a Russian spy. <<<
Rupert Everett is very good. He plays an obnoxious, narcissistic mama's boy, which may lead some viewers [like myself] to not particularly sympathize with him, but this in fact works in favor of the issues the movie is trying to raise. Since I didn't particularly LIKE Guy, I was further forced to examine what the issues of his speaking up or hiding his homosexuality raised, apart from my feelings for him as a person, and what punishment he deserved or did not deserve--ultimately deciding that, obnoxious prat that he was, he didn't deserve what happened to him. This successfully delineates the issue into what degree it is right to expect someone to hide or to expose their homosexuality.
I suspect, however, that the majority of viewers WILL be attracted to Rupert, and will thus have a different experience, much more sympathetic to his side of the story. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this--if Guy had been played by Sam Elliott, I'm sure I would have been all glassy-eyed sympathy. And by the way, they're not really my type, but if you're into pretty, clean-cut young British men, this film will basically make you cum in your pants.
The most notable film by this director was the hideous adaptation of Less Than Zero, but his direction here is very good. The film begins with a gorgeous and spooky shot traveling under the arch of a bridge over a glassy lake, and throughout one notices interesting geometrical compositions to the shots. Colin Firth is very good, but unfortunately [as became greatly apparent soon after] Cary Elwes can't portray much beyond "dewy."
Anyway, one of the better movies with homosexuality as its theme, as, in addition to being engaging and compelling, it quite successfully draws attention to a central conflict that is expertly dramatized in this situation, and has resonance for gay people everywhere.
Rating: -
If your just wanting to enlarge your gay dramas, then by all means purchase this DVD. If you fall asleep easly - you will never get thru this movie.
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