Right its been a wee while since I've done a review on this blog (apart from blagging them from my tennis blog) so this time I'm going for a British classic comedy from the 1980s, Withnail and I, which has become a real cult favourite over the years, and also heralded Richard E. Grant's acting career. So without any further ado let's have a look...
OK so the format of this blog doesn't change much (boring as it might be, but that's the way I'm used to it, so deal with it! ;-)) as we start with looking at the plot. The film is set in London 1969, where two out of work actors, Withnail (Richard E. Grant in a career defining role) and "I" (or Marwood as he is named in the script, and that's what I'll call him from now on, played by Paul McGann) struggle with their daily lives as they live in a squalid flat in Camden. Withnail is flamboyant and arrogant, and is also a raging alcoholic, whereas Marwood is more sensible, but riddled with anxieties and insecurities. In order to escape the dreariness of their lives in London, they decide to take a week's break in the countryside, and they go and visit Withnail's uncle, Monty (Richard Griffiths), who is gay and is as equally as flamboyant as Withnail, and they ask if they can use his cottage out in the country, which Monty agrees to. Withnail and Marwood then travel out to the countryside, in their battered Jaguar (which has only one windscreen wiper working as well as one headlight!) and they eventually find the cottage. However they arrive in heavy rain and when they enter the cottage, they find it to be run down and dusty.
The next day Marwood goes out in search of the locales to try and find some food, but they are somewhat unfriendly, but he eventually manages to locate a local farmer, who get's them some food. Later that night the two men go to the local pub (The crow and crown) where they get sozzled and Withnail get's into an altercation with a local poacher (Michael Elphick) who threatens to wake him up with a live eel later on in his cottage! Withnail back at the cottage spends the rest of night in fear of the poacher's threat, as he refuses to sleep alone he get's into Marwood's bed (with a double barrelled shotgun!), and later on they hear noises of someone breaking in downstairs, which soon turns out to be Monty, who apologises for scaring them and says that his car had broken down and that he would have joined them sooner. The following morning Monty has brought a supply of food and wine, but he has designs on Marwood, as we later find out that Withnail has told Monty that Marwood is gay (which he's not). Marwood catches onto this pretty quickly as Monty flirts with Marwood and corners him while they make dinner. Later on that night, Withnail is once again totally pissed, and Marwood helps him up to bed, after which he tries to get away from Monty who imposes himself on Marwood later that night, as he breaks into his room and tries to have him "even if it must be bulgary!". In a last ditch effort to prevent Monty's inescapable advances, Marwood pleads with Monty to leave as he tells him that he and Withnail are having an affair, which has been going on for years, and that Withnail refuses to accept their relationship for what it is. Monty accepts Marwood's explanation and apologises for coming between them both, after which a furious Marwood confronts Withnail in his bedroom, telling him "how dare you told him I was a toilet trader!" and he takes Withnail's shotgun before going to his own bed.
The next day Monty has left the cottage and a note of heartfelt apology, which explains that he overheard Marwood's angry words with Withnail and he felt best to leave them both. At this point Marwood receives a telegram, which says he has been offered a part in a play, and Marwood decides to leave for London immediately. As the two men travel back to London, they take turns at the wheel (with Withnail even eating his dinner in his lap!) but again Withnail is steaming drunk and is pulled over by the cops, who take them to the station (where Withnail tries to get away with the urine test using a fairy liquid bottle filled with someone else's urine!). When they get back to London, they find, a local drug dealer, Danny (Ralph Brown), squatting in their flat with a friend of his, Presuming Ed (Eddie Tagoe), with whom they share a giant spliff with, while Danny spouts his philosophy about the end of an era as the 1960s are about to close. Marwood soon comes back after his audition and tells them he got offered the lead part in a play. Not long after, Marwood get's his long hair cut short, and he packs his bags and leaves, as Withnail accompanies him part of the way, as the two men say goodbye, Withnail stands in the rain, drinking a bottle of red wine (a 53 Margaux) and quoting a piece of Hamlet, before sadly walking off in the rain alone.
Withnail and I is without a doubt one of the best and funniest British comedy films from the 1980s, and it was a terrific debut from its writer and director, Bruce Robinson, who's script is wonderfully funny and has plenty of memorable dialouge throughout. And what drives the film so well is of course its two lead characters, as Withnail is an arrogant, selfish, anaemic alcoholic who can drink anyone under the table, yet he has a strange charm, which he only occassionally turns on, especially in the scene where is in the local bar in the countryside. Marwood is the sensible centre, or the straight man of the film if you like, who is riddled with neurosis, and he at least is smart enough to realise that he must escape from the squalid life that he and Withnail are stuck in.
Performance wise is where Withnail and I really shines, as the two leads are both superb, Richard E Grant kick started his career as Withnail, and he plays his character with a wonderful sense of arrogance and pomposity, but at the centre of it all he is a tremendous coward. He also pretty much ends up a victim of his own cruelty and by the end is left alone by Marwood. As Withnail, Grant get's pretty much most of the film's best lines, of which there are many examples, such as when he sees Marwood drinking coffee from a soup bowl, and he asks "Soup??? Why didn't I get any soup??!". And there is of course the legendary line "FORK IT!", which Bruce Robinson used as the single line that would determine whom he would hire for the part, as whoever could pull off that line would nail it, which Grant certainly did. Another favourite of mine from Grant is when Withnail and Marwood run out to catch up with the farmer in his tractor, and he says "could you help us??? We've gone on holiday by mistake!". And perhaps his best line, well for me anyway, is when he and Marwood visit a cafe in the village, both pished, they sit down and ask for cake, tea and fine wine, when the owner says they haven't got any wine, Withnail snaps "Balls! We want the finest wines available to humanity! We want them here and we want them now!". And there is of course the scene where Withnail drinks lighter fluid and cackles madly in front of Marwood "Have we got anymore??? You've got anit-freeze!" before being violently sick. Richard E Grant, who was and is teetotal to this day, was asked by Robinson to get drunk as part of the preparation of the part of Withnail, which he reluctantly accepted, and he was violently sick afterwards! And it has to be said you won't find a finer drunk act anywhere in cinema than Grant's in this film. And as a last note on Withnail another one of my favourite scenes is where he and Marwood go to a lake to do some "fishing", which is involves Withnail blasting his shotgun into the water to try and shoot the fish.
Paul McGann, while he isn't as flamboyant as Grant's character, delivers a great performance as Marwood, who is level headed but also deeply neurotic about life in general. You can also empathise more with Marwood as he is quite often the victim of Withnail's cruel streak, especially when Monty starts to make his move on him. One of my favourite scenes of his is where he goes off to the toilet in the Camden bar near the start of the film, and is called a ponce on the way by a thuggish customer, and as he stands in the bathroom he looks around at the graffiti and he sees the following on the wall "I fuck arses???? Who fucks arses??? Maybe HE fucks arses! Maybe he's written this in some drunken moment of sincerity!". I also like the scene where he and Withnail share the bed in the cottage, as they argue about Withnail holding a shotgun in bed, it goes off, and Marwood yells "you mad fucking bastard!!!" as throws the gun out the window.
Richard Griffiths as Uncle Monty is also terrific, Withnail's gay flamboyany uncle, who let's them use his cottage, only to have his eye on Marwood. Monty is also quite sympathetic as he is sentimental of his youth and lives a lonley life, and he too is manipulated by Withnail, by making him believe Marwood is gay, giving him some hope for a bit of nooky. Griffith's main highlight is of course his attemped seduction scene with Marwood, where he can't fight temptation to have him, which of course provides Griffiths with his best line where he says "I mean to have you even if it must be burgalry!".
The supporting cast are also excellent, particularly Ralph Brown as the stoner and drug dealer, Danny, who squats in Withnail and Marwood's flat. Danny is basically just a spacehead, but he get's some funny moments in the film as he philosophises about life in the 60s, and he says of hairdressers "that they are all in the employment of the government" and that "hair are your aerials!". I also like the scene where he dares Withnail to try one of his drugs and he says "If I medicined you, you would think a brain tumour was a birthday present!". And also in a smaller role the late Michael Elphick makes a memorable cameo as Jake, the poacher, who threatens Withnail and says "I've seen you prancing around like a tit! You need working on, boy!".
Direction wise Bruce Robinson does a great job, and his script is a wonderful piece of writing which is very funny and also quite poignant in places as well. Robinson is also seen in the film during the scene where Withnail is driving the Jaguar down the motorway, swerving left and right, as Robinson is driving the car (and that is his car!). Robinson also said he partly had based Monty's character on the director Franco Zeffirelli, whom Robinson was allegedly sexually harrassed by as younger man during the making of Romeo and Juliet. The part of Withnail was also based on Robinson's real life flat mate and fellow actor, Vivian McKerrell, whom Robinson said was the funniest person he had ever known. Vivian McKerrell later on died in 1995 from throat cancer (which apparently was in tiny part attributed towards not only his rampant alcohol abuse, but also consumpion of lighter fluid!).
So that's it for my review of Withnail and I, which is a still one of the great modern classics of British cinema, and if you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favour and rectify that as soon as you can, as its superb stuff.
And I shall leave it there.
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