*** (out of ****)
Starring Stephen Frye, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Rita Rudner, Imelda Staunton, Tony Slattery, and Alphonsia Emmanuel.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, from the screenplay by Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman.
1992 R
Old friends congregate over the weekend in a great big house. Old secrets come out, old wounds are reopened, and old flames are rekindled. What happened to you, what happened to me, they seem to ask, and what happened to us? We used to be young, ideological, promising, and footloose. The situation is something of a cinematic contrivance inherited from the theater, but when the characters are likable and the secrets are good we like the contrivance dusted off. “Peter’s Friends” is an enjoyable example of just such a reunion movie. We all grow old and most of us, in some way or another, half-regret the compromises we make along the way, or at least half-begrudge the compromises of our friends.
The big house belongs to Peter (Stephen Frye), who has inherited it and wants all his old friends over for New Year’s Eve. They’re his old comedy troupe, which broke up ten years ago and haven’t seen much of each other since. In some respects they’ve all gone on to do bigger and better things, while in other ways they’re still trapped in the same old ruts, grown tighter with time. The characters will realize something about themselves in the course of next few days they will find joyous but sad, painful but strengthening. There’s the self-loathing sitcom writer and his Hollywood wife (Kenneth Branagh and Rita Rudner), there’s the bimbo and her new flame (Alphonsia Emmanuel and Tony Slattery), there’s the jingle-writing couple in constant concern of the baby back home (Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton), and there’s the dowdy one that doesn’t seem to do much of anything (Emma Thompson).
Each of Peter’s friends is in some way neurotic, selfish, and carrying crushed dreams, but each is also kind to the others. Together they will share joyful moments and awkward moments, someone is bound to drink too much, and feelings will be hurt and repaired. Little conversational alliances will be formed and we will discover who really knows more about whom. What they’re all going through could be called a mid-life crisis, but it’s more a sort of second adolescence in which newer, more responsible identities are clawing out of the youthful chrysalis of reckless freedom. The characters are all theater people, and some of the actors are too, so they’re accustomed to grand gestures and big speeches. They can sing and they can dance, and there’s some wanton sex thrown in to, which people in these movies never seem to realize causes more problems than it solves.
“Peter’s Friends” knows its characters inside and out, and what makes it so entertaining is that the characters are basically nice people. They’ve made mistakes and done some bad things but they’re trying, and we like them for it. There’s a danger in movies like this to have the audience sit and stare at talking heads, but director Branagh wields his camera and stages his scenes like a cross between Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman. Conversations come in and out and overlap, but we get the high points, while our point of view circles the friends when they are excited or gets in close when they are being intimate. “Peter’s Friends” is not a profound movie, but it is kind-hearted, funny, and very well-acted, and knows a lot about friendship.
Finished May 31, 2002
Copyright © 2002 Friday & Saturday Night