Absolute Beginners

Karel Bata

at 1:07 pm

This was one of the films that brought Goldcrest to its knees. Anyone remember Revolution, or The Mission?

Buckets of money were poured into this fiasco on the assumption that the more elements you added (and the more you spent) the better the final film. In the end it is failure on a jaw dropping scale that sank several careers. And really – didn’t anyone think to screen test the leads for acting talent..?

Imagine a mish-mash of stuff stolen from West Side Story, A Star is Born, Singing In The Rain, Oliver… you get my drift? Basically nothing at all cohesive.

There is a massive Soho set, which proves to be such a disappointment. This could have been a reconstruction of Soho as it was in 1958 (the money was clearly there!) but everything is in the wrong place, and important elements are missing. The happy-go-lucky mood is just so completely wrong. The secondary characters are all cliches, like all black people in those days were cool (one is even named Cool!) lesbians are fat, cuddly, and lots of fun, prostitutes are tarts with a heart, knife fights are only ‘between friends’ (but about what?) etc. And just how could an unemployed working class teenager, who is the focus of this film, ever afford a 2×2 film camera…? They weren’t cheap.

It’s hard to believe that this was based on Colin McInness’s novel – which I haven’t read but assume must have had some kind of decent plot that got junked along the way. Singer Sade’s night club set piece isn’t too bad though, but even Bowie’s one turn looks ridiculous.

Still, what lifts this movie immeasurably is Oliver Stapleton’s sumptuous lighting. It turns the film into eye candy, as do the costumes and set design. And there’s several amusing guest appearances – like Mandy Rice-Davies as Ray Davies’ (no relation!) haggard suburban wife.

Fact is, there’s plenty to watch, so I didn’t get bored, or feel I’d completely wasted the evening, but I did spend the time awe-struck at all this mis-conceived extravagance and bad acting.

As an aside, I’m very much looking forward to the overdue re-release of Jez Butterworth’s excellent Mojo, which did a very convincing re-construction of that same era. Watch out for it.
Rating: 2 / 5

'Arry Viewer

at 3:34 pm

I have to agree with the author of the “Absolute Turkey” review of this film. I spent a while wondering if the film is so bad, it’s good — but eventually ending up thinking it’s just plain bad. It does have one or two moments though. If you want an impression of what it might have been like to be a teenager in 1950s London (the decade which invented teenagers), the Colin MacInnes novel is much better.
Rating: 1 / 5