Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pagePlenty (1985)
Director: Fred Schepisi
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
David Hare has been laying into the British for so long now, one begins to wonder what they ever did to him. When Plenty was first produced on the stage, its compelling vision of our postwar decline, seen through the eyes of a wartime heroine, had its edge dulled by a hectoring moral righteousness. Balance is restored in Schepisi's film, largely by the obvious filmic process of shifting the point of view among the characters. The life of Susan Traherne (Streep) suffers a steady decline alongside the more retrograde incidents of our history (Festival of Britain, Suez), until her only option is to take to the road as a vagrant to try and recapture her former glory as a spy in World War II France, when the world seemed young. Performances all round are excellent, especially Dance as her long-suffering boyfriend, and Gielgud as the last exponent of decency at the Foreign office. Whether or not you buy the message, it's a work that qualifies as epic, and reveals Hare as a great Romantic. CPea.Author: CPea
Cast & crew
Director: Fred Schepisi
Producer: Edward R Pressman, Joseph Papp
Cast: Meryl Streep, Sam Neill, Charles Dance, John Gielgud, Tracey Ullman, Sting, Ian McKellen, André Maranne full cast
Duration: 124 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Jackson's This Is It: review
Kenny Ortega's posthumous concert film is a rousing eulogy for one of pop's great enigmas
LFF Closing Night: Nowhere Boy
Read our review of Sam Taylor-Wood's stunningly assured debut feature on the early life of John Lennon
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
Lone Scherfig talks 'An Education'
Danish director Lone Scherfig was an unlikely choice for a very English affair like 'An Education'. Cath Clarke meets her
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Wes Anderson: interview
Casually departing the world of live-action filmmaking, Wes Anderson's latest is a stop-motion retelling of Roald Dahl's much-loved children's book, 'Fantastic Mr Fox'.
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now