Rotten
The 'wit' is leaden and unfunny; the narrative's progress ungainly; the direction stolid.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Bright Young Things
Sex... Scandal... Celebrity... Some things never change.
2003 · 1h 46m · R
Comedy, Drama
Directed by
Stephen Fry
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Bright Young Things
Overview
During the 1930s in England, a group of young socialites dominate the national gossip with extravagant and outlandish antics. Among the group is the aspiring novelist Adam Fenwick-Symes, who is attempting to raise enough money to marry fellow member Nina Blount. However, after customs officials confiscate his first manuscript, Fenwick-Symes must recover from the financial setback and figure out new ways to earn money for a wedding.
Director and cast
- Stephen Fry Director
- Stephen Campbell Moore as Adam Fenwick-Symes
- Michael Sheen as Miles
- Emily Mortimer as Nina Blount
- Harriet Walter as Lady Maitland
- James McAvoy as Simon Balcairn
- David Tennant as Ginger Littlejohn
- Stockard Channing as Mrs. Melrose Ape
- Fenella Woolgar as Agatha Runcible
- Dan Aykroyd Cast
- Simon McBurney Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
65%
Tomatometer
Fresh
One conceit of writer-director Stephen Fry is to dramatize parties as knots of chaos, social hurricanes that spill across the landscape this way and that, ruining lives, eating time, preventing progress of any kind.
Stephen Hunter, Houston Chronicle
Rotten
Though Fry's movie has plenty of nasty wit, it lacks the sheer luxurious malice of Waugh's book. Fry is acerbic; Waugh is lethal.
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fresh
Suffers from feeling like it's just pretending to be good when it's obviously much, much happier being bad. But when it's bad, it's very, very good.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
Rotten
If you yearn for a Brit fix, this is your flick. If not, think twice before checking it out.
Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel
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