1h 47m
Director: Bruce Robinson

A meandering stream of consciousness from a time before stream of consciousness film was popular. Withnail & I explores the lives of 2 broke, out of work actors and illustrates several escape from reality strategies that definitely don't work. Hilarity ensues as we see events spiral out of control.

It's got eminently quotable scene after classic scene. If you've never seen it before you'll probably recognise some of the script as someone you know has probably referenced it.

Paul McGann plays the straight man with Richard E Grant playing the loose cannon comic relief character. Underneath the craziness, the relationship between Withnail and I is enduringly sweet, which adds authenticity to the performances.

Ralph Brown is Danny the hippy and quite honestly you probably won't recognise him (for good reasons) even though he later goes on to play Ric Olié in the Star Wars prequels (he's been in lots of other famous films, but that's the double-take one for me) and Richard Griffiths plays Monty, a stereotypical, very gay, middle-aged actor who provides a few of those famous quotes I was waffling about.

It's a smorgasbord of amusing scenarios. There's Chekovs urine sample dispenser for example. The question of course is, "who donated the contents?" - the answer to which is alluded to earlier on.

If you're quite ethical then you may find yourself picking to pieces every scene, slightly appalled and offended but if you leave your morals at the door and get in touch with your inner hedonist then I think you will thoroughly enjoy yourself, absorb some quite amusing unforgettable scenes and have some genuine belly laughs.

It's all set in England in the very late 60's so there's plenty of unpolitically correct dialogue and plenty of things typical to that era (like people smoking in pubs, good looking classic cars and a slightly fascist police force).

If The Hangover (2009) is half a bottle of wine then Withnail & I is 2 bottles of wine, half a bottle of polish vodka and a blunt (made in Camberwell!)...

If you're a fan of laser focused narratives then don't bother but if you don't mind your art a bit fuzzy 'round the edges then strap in for a classic!



Trailer: