Skunkyrate
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Kirandeep Yoder
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Sarita Rafferty
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Katherina_Minola
This film, based on a Noel Coward play, stars Julie Andrews, as Lady Felicity Marshwood, who is upset to learn that her son, Lord Nigel (Edward Atterton) is engaged to be married to Hollywood film star Miranda Frayle (Jeanne Tripplehorn). However, the situation soon becomes even more complicated when Nigel plans to bring Miranda to meet his aristocratic family, only for the family's maid Moxie (Sophie Thompson), to announce that Miranda is in fact her sister! Throw in Miranda's co-star and former lover Don Lucas (William Baldwin) who is coming to England to try and stop the marriage, and Colin Firth and Stephen Fry as respectively Nigel's cousin Peter, and the family butler Crestwell, and the stage is set for a fine comedy!I loved this film – it did remind me somewhat of another Noel Coward adaptation – Easy Virtue, which like Relative Values, also starred Colin Firth, and which also featured the son of an upper-crust English family bringing his vivacious American girlfriend to meet his relatives, but the films play out quite differently (I loved easy Virtue too).All the cast were excellent – in particular, Thompson, Andrews and Firth. Stephen Fry was playing a role which could have been written for him, and although he is one of the supporting rather than main cast members, he certainly makes the most of his screen time. Baldwin is also very funny as the often drunk Lucas, who throws a spanner in the works of Miranda's plan to transform herself from a starlet to a Lady of the Manor. And Moxie, who is transformed from a maid, into a wealthy family friend (so that Miranda won't recognise her) is the centre of one of the funniest scenes, when Moxie gets drunk to try and overcome her fear at meeting her sister who she hasn't seen for some 20 years. Colin Firth is just adorable as Peter – it could have been a nothing role in the wrong actor's hands, but Firth is perfect.The plot itself is rather daft – why didn't they just tell Miranda that her sister was working for the family, rather than try and cover up the fact (and surely Miranda would have recognised her own sister!), but I think that it's just something that you need to go with, accept, and enjoy. Overall, this was a very funny and hugely delightful film. At just under one and a half hours, it never gets boring, the cast is top-notch, and I would certainly recommend it.
pink_fairy_poo
This has to be one of the very worst films I've seen. Admittedly, getting free on the front of a magazine didn't bode well, but this was beyond all expectation, it was truly awful.Not in the least bit funny, just plain boring, my family and I endured this travesty of a film in the hope that it might get a bit better. Even the high profile cast (Julie Andrews, Colin Firth and Stephen Fry) failed to redeem.Most of the film time was spent discussing with my Dad the fact that it was filmed near my cousin's house, a conversation a whole lot more enthralling than the dragged out dialogue dirtying my television set.This truly is an awful film.
ANeary
This is based on a Noel Coward play, so you should know what to expect.It is very nicely done - the locations look great (Isle of Man standing in for Kent), the cars and clothes are fabulous, and the casting is excellent. Stephen Fry plays a butler (again) with some Jeevesian touches, but is pretty low-key. Colin Firth plays against type in the role Coward so obviously designed for himself - and is funny (again, not something one expects from Firth). Jeanne Tripplehorn looks suitably glamorous as the Hollywood star, and Baldwin This does make a few digs at class and snobbery, but it is really a bit of fluffy comedy to pass a pleasant hour.
Insp. Clouzot
Brilliant acting from a superb cast. Dialogues are great and subtle. Stephen Fry is a marvelous butler. Fans of "Mad Max 12" and "Lethal Weapon 123" pass your way ; it is not for you.... For the rest of the world, it is a good movie with a charming - though predictable sometimes - opposition between British and American values -and way of life...
