Getting It Right

Poor Gavin (Birdsall), shy, sensitive, still living at home, and at 31 the oldest virgin in Christendom. But fear not: Gav is about to discover gurls in a big way, in all their stereotypical glory. There's Minerva (Bonham Carter), anorexic daughter of wealth-seeking Mr Buy-Rite; Joan (Redgrave), a flame-haired 40-year-old who has had material splendour heaped upon her but has 'never been loved'; and Jenny (Horrocks), heart-of-gold hairdresser's assistant. All have the hots for nice boy Gavin. Adapted by Elizabeth Jane Howard from her own novel, the film flits between light comedy and raging pathos, a male fantasy (despite the female author) drenched in a kind of Hampstead world-view. Cameos come and go: Cook adjusts his toupée, and Gielgud camps it up as Minerva's arriviste father. half-hearted attempts are made to evoke the style of '60s films like Georgy Girl, but it just never clicks. Birdsall is fine, but top marks to Pat Heywood as his mother, who fair steals the whole movie.