Bright Young Things Details

Stephen Fry's adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel Vile Bodies (renamed to spare American sensibilities, apparently) is a solid enough directorial debut. Waugh's tale of inter-war youthful plutocrats engaging in endless partying and occasional spasms of self-loathing has been semi-faithfully transferred to the screen by a sterling, if mostly unknown, cast. Stephen Campbell Moore stars as Adam Symes, a frustrated writer who sets out to marry his girlfriend Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer), but it's Fenella Woolgar who really shines as ditzy, doomed socialite Agatha Runcible. There's solid support from the likes of Simon Callow and Jim Broadbent who ham it up pleasingly as comic support. But, inevitably, some of Waugh's finely wrought style evaporates in the transfer and the film drags occasionally as a result. And, despite Fry's claims that the film is relevant to our celebrity-sodden times, the overall effect is like gazing at a set of characters trapped inside a museum case, leaving you with the vague uncertainty as to why anyone bothered.

"...The renaissance man of British entertainment, Fry has captured all the anxious, frazzled spirit of Evelyn Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies" in an exuberant directorial debut... Breathless, fast-paced and very funny." (Allan Hunter)