Withnail And I
(1986)
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WITHNAIL AND I is a quirky semiautobiographical account of filmmaker Bruce Robinson's early years as an actor. In 1969 London, two unemployed thespians--Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and Marwood (Paul McGann)--take a holiday in the Lake District at the home of Withnail's uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths), quite unprepared for what is in store for them, not only involving the locals, but the uncle as well. |
This great little film launched the career of Richard E Grant and has since developed into a cult classic. Those born before 1950 will regard this tale of two dissolute 1960s hippies (Grant and Paul McGann) with unbridled horror. There are empty bottles and dirty underwear everywhere, along with half-finished joints and fag ends stubbed out in congealing boiled eggs. But this is in fact a glorious rite-of-passage movie, as the lads decamp to a cottage in the Lake District where they struggle to survive the weather and a lecherous Uncle Monty. It's written and directed by Bruce Robinson (who wrote the screenplay for The Killing Fields), based on his own experiences in London's Camden Town.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Deliberately seedy comedy which settles down as a study of character and contrives to be hard to forget.