avoid
Pretensious dross ... Utterly unbelievable and ludicrous from an era where British films where truly awful i hated it ,it sucked !!
(My Beutiful laundrette falls into this category as well)
Funnily enough, I watched both of them this week to get a better feel for what British cinema was actually like during that oft-maligned period. I do actually remember these two Frears films being released, so I've been vaguely curious for 2 decades.
But yes, this was a disappointment. Plenty of potentially interesting issues were crammed into the script, but it comes across as rather stiff and lacking in momentum. And sadly, some of the brusque self-righteous lines delivered by these politically-conscious characters made me giggle more than I suspect I was supposed to. I couldn't give it more than a 6/10 at most.
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I suppose on a clear day you can see the class struggle from here.
I just struggled through this and could muster no more than 5 out of 10. I will admit that I am biased, as I cannot stand watching self-absorbed people forcing their sexuality on others as a political statement, whether it be the conservative father or the "liberated" Rosie. But in addition to having no characters I liked or could relate to, this film was nothing but a series of confrontations with no resolution – and, more importantly, no insight.
Compare this with something recent like Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which pushes all the right buttons and actually makes you think, and you are reminded what a failure this was.
I remember when this film was released, and many newspapers in the United States would not run the whole title of the film, calling it just "Sammy and Rosie." That's a piece of trivia now – but no more trivial than this film itself.