36 out of 38 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent

Ed from Manchester, 27th May, 2005

The above 'official' critique is wrong - thats a completely different film... To the film - i remember this film from childhood. In the opening shots of the film you see his character sitting in a grey room, beginning to tell his story of what made him become a spy. The rest of the film is very similar to merchant ivory fodder - 'Old England', set pre-war in a Public School, lots of restrained emotion with Rupert Everett as the lead character. Rupert plays a public school boy who goes against the norm. He plays a gay character who falls in love with a fellow schoolboy. He also counts a fellow communist classmate as a good friend and ally. He is from a well to do family and all he wants is to become a 'God', an uber prefect if you like. Theres alot of anger in him, seen especially when he sees his dream slipping through his fingers as the hypocricy of the english public school system becomes apparent. His becoming a spy seems, overall, only a pyric victory over his very english upbringing. His being true to himself costing him his future. Based on a true story, the cinematography takes you into a world long gone and though visually its relaxing on the eye with beautiful views of old school buildings and english countryside, the subtext is quite dark. I particularly enjoyed its revoking of a bygone era and how it portrays the stiff upper lip approach as too hard for some to take, ultimately causing them to crack under pressure....

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12 out of 12 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent stuff

jennifer claire from Ireland, 19th April, 2007

Bound to effect you on some level. Saw this twenty odd years ago and again recently and it is well worth the wait if you are thinking of putting it on your list. Performances outstanding- before the lads became parodies of themselves, they were gifted young actors. Not to be missed.

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12 out of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Top Film

A Customer from Birmingham, 21st August, 2007

First saw this over 20 years ago, & a few times since. Stick with it because this is a top film, well played & with atmosphere. Highly recommended. See it !

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9 out of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Interesting and evocative of an era

Treetops from from Wirral, 16th April, 2008

This gave an insight into the public school sytem and it's effects on a gay man. there were a lots of things unsaid in which you were left to assume what would happen. The film should have filled the gap between the youthful days and the old man. How did he end up in Russia? What made him go?

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Another Country

A Customer from Hampshire, 5th March, 2010

A pretentious piece of writing - Rupert Everett way too old to play the part of a schoolby! Absolutely hated it!!

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Indifferent

A Customer from London, 9th August, 2009

I was quite disappointed and almost fell asleep. There isn't much of a plot and it was very difficult to sympathise with these characters. Perhaps I would have felt different about this if I had been at Cambridge during this time...

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SNOOZzzzzzzzzzzze!

A Customer from Truro, England, 16th July, 2009

I thought this was going to be good, but unfortunately it was totally boring; I couldn't follow the plot, and it virtually sent me to sleep. Absolute rubbish. I couldn't wait for it to end!

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Another country

Antigone from , 8th July, 2009

I was expecting something totally different and I was really shocked by level of raw militarism throughout the film. being an educator, it helps me understand better why so many people have such sad experiences linked to learning and education.

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