Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

pekinman It is insanely perverse of New Line Home entertainment to tout this downbeat film as a 'warm-hearted comedy'.I didn't know what to expect from Mike Newell. He's made films of all genres and has recently made the Hollywood set with The Prince of Persia, though it was a bit of a flop, but still...I liked his Enchanted April a great deal and Four Weddings and a Funeral had its charms and was very mainstream. So I had hopes of liking An Awfully Big Adventure as well. I was also curious to see the only film adaptation of a Beryl Bainbridge novel. I wasn't prepared for An Awfully Big Adventure being so strange and just plain weird. This film boasts a splendid cast of actors, many of them long past their primes but then so are most of the characters in the movie. The technical credits, music, cinematography and script are fine, the acting, as stated, is superb, but this is one of the most depressing films I've ever seen. The story is neurotic, childish and yet strangely touching, chock-full of Catholic suffering and self-flagellation. The characters are drawn beautifully and the overall point of the story is well-taken, the devastation of war on human psyches and all that, but the ultimate point of the story, incest, is a shocking and seemingly irrelevant side swipe that threw this viewer's mind off center. I waited for something deep to be revealed but the film simply stops with the sudden incest angle. It's your basic sordid tale of a troupe of has-beens on their last legs in a Liverpool theatre. The young girl, Stella, is extremely odd and doesn't seem to possess a shred of innocence that I think we were supposed to think she possessed. She's naïve to be sure and inexperienced but innocent, no. And fantasy life borders on the psychotic. I have no doubt she ended up either a nun or a whore.Georgina Cates gives a pretty great performance though she's very difficult to understand more often than not and I have been watching British/Irish/Scotch films for years. She trips over many of her lines in a self-conscious way, part of her character perhaps. Alan Rickman is not quite as mush-mouthed as he usually is but I still don't understand the wild passion of his deathless legions of fans. I find him very boring most of the time, but he can pull out some moments of high drama when called upon to do so.Hugh Grant actually does the most convincing job of acting. His old pansy stage director with his nicotine-yellowed fingers made me squirm; a simply awful person.There are two splendid performances by Nicola Pagett and Carol Drinkwater as the two fading beauties in the troupe of actors; the former a love-sick tragedienne and the latter a hopeless, sex-starved drunk. And Peter Firth returns to the big screen in a quietly humorous and yet pathetic stage manager, Bunny. In his subtle way Firth steals the show whenever he's on screen.No, this is not a warm-hearted comedy. It is a nasty tale with a heart of latex.Having said all that it's worth seeing as an oddity. I could not give it less than 5 stars because the over-all quality of the production and performances is so very high. It's just Beryl Bainbridge's dark, sad story that leaves a pall. Maybe, in time, I will come to view this as some kind of minor masterpiece, but I doubt it.A very odd viewing experience. No wonder it flopped in America. This kind of socialist, down-trodden banging-on doesn't even get off the ground in a free society.

eagleeyedcritic I picked up this movie to watch based on a reviewers comment on the back cover that this is a comedy thus I was disappointed. It is not a comedy... it is a drama and a rather depressing one at that. Although there is good acting in it. Had I been prepared to watch a drama, I would have liked it better. It is not predictable like most Hollywood movies and it shows the quirkier side of people. I think this is the first time I have seen Hugh Grant portray a rather mean spirited character as he usually plays more likable roles. I think he acted it very well as did Alan Rickman... but they are both are great actors, thus no surprise.Twist at end.

arbarnes This is one of the better films about theatre and what it does to some people. It resembles "The Dresser" in atmosphere to a certain extent, and in the portrayal of many of its characters. Both are set in Northern England during the 1940s, in rather faded theatres. Characters from one film could quite easily have inhabited the other. Here however we follow primarily the journey of a stage-struck young girl as she enters the strange and often unpredictable world of a repertory theatre -her own awfully big adventure. Note the irony of the title. Secret desires and yearnings linger under the surface, bitchiness and petty jealousy escort humour and the spirit of "the show going on" no matter what. It is however quite a dark film, and bravely allows us to get to know characters who are unsympathetic but not altogether unlikable. Alan Rickman underplays beautifully as always, and a restrained Hugh Grant demonstrates his considerable skill as a character actor. This is one of the most interesting of all his screen performances. Georgina Cates gives a stunning performance of the innocent (but not THAT innocent) girl drawn into the world of the theatre, and the supporting cast are faultless. Prunella Scales, Carol Drinkwater and Peter Firth deserve special salutes however. Lots to like here, but it is not at all a feel good movie. Nor is it meant to be.

trpdean What a strange title to give a film about some of the ugliest characters you'll ever come across. This film could have been put out by those who felt for centuries that "theater folk" are people to stay FAR away from - their nasty name-calling, their preying on the young, their perversions, their plain meanness - can't be rubbed away as easily as the darkness drawn by any numbered make-up. Whew, what an ugly UGLY group of people. I shivered. You'll want a bath after this one. The acting, sets, costumes were first rate - particularly Nicola Pagett, Hugh Grant, Alun Armstrong, Peter Firth, and the girl playing the lead (whose name now escapes me). It was wonderful to see Pagett in a film again (she was superb not only in Upstairs Downstairs but as the greatest Anna Karenina yet seen in the 10 hour series). I was also pleased to see Rita Tushingham in too small a part as the aunt. If you like watching bullies gather together in playgrounds to attack, kick, and tear apart the clothes, confidence, limbs and self-esteem of the smallest and youngest, you may however find this appealing. For me, this is one of the darkest and most depressing films I've ever seen.