An Awfully Big Adventure

Rated R
1995

close-up photo courtesy of Claire; dance photo courtesy of Raffaella

The Reviews:

Overall Rating: 4 hands
Rickmanista Rating: 4.5 hands

First of all, although this movie was classified as a comedy, it is not. It has some very funny scenes, but it is not a comedy. The title, taken from a line in Peter Pan, refers to death. The ending was a surprise - I felt as though a rug had been pulled out from under me, and I didn't like it much. (The ending, that is.) My first viewing left me in mild shock. I felt drawn to watch it several more times, however, for a number of reasons. The film intrigues me with all thats going on, all the time and the characters interest me. And, it took several viewings to catch most of the dialog. English is my second language; American is my first.

The story is about the young girl Stella (maybe even more mixed up than the average young girl) who joins a theater group as a way to escape life in post WWII Liverpool. She is almost hopelessly naive and inexperienced with life but displays the selfish, sometimes cruel, behavior of a teenager. She's not a bad sort, just obsessed with what she wants and doesn't bother to look at how her behavior effects others. One of the things she is obsessed with is the company's director. Hugh Grant does an outstanding job at playing Potter, the totally vile director of the little troupe. He's selfish, cruel, debauched and delights in making others miserable.

The rest of the cast do a very good job of playing a troupe of mediocre, aging players. All the characters have stories and somehow you come to care about them. P. L. O'Hara (played by Alan Rickman) doesn't appear until the second half of the movie, but when he arrives (on his motorbike), the whole dynamics of the little group change. He is a sad and lonely man with a past that haunts him but he is still a strong presence in the group. He has come in answer to a call for help from the theater manager; clearly an old, dear and respected friend. The others look up to him, cheering him when he arrives for rehearsal and even asking him to intercede on behalf of the young man Potter is currently ruining. One of the women in the group still carries a very live torch for him. Even Potter changes when O'Hara joins the group. There is clearly a history between the two men and it isn't that good. They do, however have a certain closeness and familiarity with each other that made me want to know more of their past associations. Potter physically and mentally straightens up when O'Hara arrives and while willing to joke with him is still wary in his company.

O'Hara, while spending his spare time searching for his lost love and the son he never knew, still cares for the others. He is gentle with the woman who still loves him, tries to get Potter to back off from ruining Jeffery, the young man Potter has seduced, and notices and is concerned about, Stella's obsession for Potter. He has an interest in Stella himself, remarking to one of the troupe, “I KNOW her.” He doesn't, but is drawn to her despite their age difference. Stella, noticing his attraction, takes the opportunity to learn the “knack” of sex so that when Potter finally takes her to bed, and she thinks this must happen, she won't “put him off” with her inexperience. It's not quite clear who seduces whom, but Stella and O'Hara do get together. In her obsession with Potter, Stella cares nothing for anyone else and it is inexpressibly sad when O'Hara wraps her nakedness in a blanket and his arms and asks, “Don't you love me just a bit?” and she replies, “No! I love another.”

There is humor to be had. In Stella's second ever sexual encounter, she gives direction to the older, experienced O'Hara. He pauses and the looks that pass over his face had me laughing until the tears came. When O'Hara inserts a dramatic pause into his lines in rehearsal, Stella, thinking he has forgotten his lines, prompts him. The reactions of O'Hara and Potter are hysterical. Stella, is clueless.

The entire cast does a splendid job. I found Stella the least believable (or likable!) character. It's hard to believe anyone could be that clueless, even in the 50's, but perhaps. AR does his usual superb job. In his first 4 minutes on screen, in a verity of different scenes with different people - all talking to him - he doesn't speak at all. The communication is all in the facial expressions and the body language. It had me almost desperate for the sound of his voice. His portrayal of Captain Hook on the stage is as marvelous as we fans would expect.

I won't go into the ending other than to say I didn't like it. It comes on you fast and runs you right over. I was left wondering what was going to happen to the others. I found I cared about them. Perhaps this is a sign of a good movie. Certainly a sign of good story telling.

Overall, I think I like the movie. Sort of. I like the process anyway.

It is interesting to note that to get the part of Stella, the actress changed her name ( to Georgina Cates) and lied about her age. She was 20, not 16 and she was not an inexperienced Liverpool girl. When the deception was discovered the director (Mike Newell) was at first angry but then said he realized it would be good for business. Some of the cast was “miffed”, not the least of which was AR. "He treated Georgina very tactfully, presuming that she was sexually inexperienced and could get upset by the scene."*

*Quote taken from a New York Times article of 8/12/95.

Fausta thanks Helen for her review

Reviewed by Shelly, 4 August, 1998

Overall Rating: 2-1/2 hands

Rickmaniac Rating: 3 hands

My first impressions upon watching "An Awfully Big Adventure" were these: 1) They put this in the comedy section? And 2) What a very strange movie! That said, subsequent viewings of the video have somewhat altered those initial perceptions. I liked the movie a little more each time I watched it.

Set in post-WWII Liverpool, the story centers around Stella (Georgina Cates), a naïve teenager who desperately wants to be an actress. She gets a job as an assistant with a local, struggling theater company, and develops a crush on the director, Meredith Potter (Hugh Grant). Potter is not a nice person, but, nevertheless, Stella is enamoured of him. When one of the actors meets with an accident, legendary actor P.L. O’Hara (Rickman) is hired to play the role of Captain Hook in the company’s production of "Peter Pan." O’Hara, who we learn is searching for a woman from his past, soon seduces the young Stella.

The characters in this movie are all emotionally complicated, even the wide-eyed Stella, who has imaginary phone conversations with her non-existent mother. As odd, and ultimately depressing as this movie is, once I had watched it several times and started to discern the motives for the characters’ behavior, I appreciated it a little more. O’Hara watches Stella closely, and is aware of her crush on Potter, and I felt that part of his initial reason for seducing her was to protect her from being hurt by Potter. Stella is eager to gain "experience" in adult matters, and is using O’Hara for her own purposes. The supporting characters of the theater company are interesting in their own ways, and we are given a view of what life must be like in a local theater company. If you are unprepared for the twist at the end of the story, it is a shock. While providing melodrama, I felt it to be somewhat unbelievable - just too big a coincidence.

I gave this film an overall rating of two and a half hands, since I felt that its redeeming qualities were about equal to its negatives. I gave it a Rickmaniac rating of three hands - Mr. Rickman conveys much emotion in this film with a minimum of words. Rickmaniacs will also enjoy seeing him perform as Captain Hook.

After attending Book Discussion Group meetings for several years, I’ve found that sometimes the best books do not make the best discussions, because when people tend to agree about almost all points there’s not much else to discuss and we digress on to different subjects instead of discussing the book.

AABA certainly has provoked a great deal of discussion in Suzanne’s Guestbook. It appears to be one of those that polarizes opinions, and people either love it or hate it. Unfortunately I’m among the latter.

Usually displayed in the comedy section of your video store, the first half of this depressing film is indeed a relatively light comedy about a group of actors (played by Hugh Grant, Edward Petherbridge, and others) in a surprisingly empty Liverpool *. I’m actually puzzled as to how they got the second busiest port in Europe to look totally vacant. The second half becomes a tragedy, mired in heavy symbolism, where the girl does the light for Tinkerbell and O’Hara is Captain Hook, her mother’s name is Stella Maris -- a title given to the Virgin Mary in Catholic liturgy -- and on and on. The girl is a destructive force, she throws herself -- in a very crass way -- unknowingly into incest, and I ended up finding the story line rather offensive.

Mr. Rickman plays O’Hara, a lonely man who roams the town looking for his lost love. He is moving, even very tender, at times, so I was embarrassed to see him having to stagger and holler "Stella!" like a misplaced Stanley Kowalsky.

As a Rickmaniac I’d say Mr. Rickman was good but I can’t recommend this film.