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Bright Young Things
ThinkFilm Inc.


6.3

based on 32 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for some drug use

Starring Emily Mortimer, Stephen Campbell Moore, Fenella Woolgar, James McAvoy, Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Stockard Channing, and Guy Henry

Based on the classic novel "Vile Bodies" by Evelyn Waugh, this satirical comedy and love story is set in 1930's London.

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Stephen Fry Evelyn Waugh (novel Vile Bodies)
DIRECTED BY:	Stephen Fry
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 8, 2005 Theatrical: August 20, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	105 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Fry establishes himself as an inspired, world-class talent behind the camera and delivers my favorite film of the year thus far.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie has a sweetness and tenderness for these characters, poor lambs, blissfully unaware that they're about to be flattened by World War II.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This is a wickedly funny skewering of a prewar London society gone mad with frivolity.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A brilliant, giddy satiric romp with a discreetly moralistic viewpoint beneath its high-style wit.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

in its best moments, Bright Young Things is as lithe and as wicked as its source material. Depending on how much of a Waugh purist you are, its flaws may trouble you as you're watching it. But afterward, they might not matter so much.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Waugh's dialogue, effortlessly catching the lockjaw intonations and facetious mannerisms of the British aristocracy between the world wars, is a gift to screenwriters and performers alike. The actors Mr. Fry has assembled receive the gift with gusto and grace.

Slate David Edelstein

I could quibble with the conventionally romantic ending and a couple of small but not-so-cosmetic alterations, but on the whole, this is just how I'd always imagined one of my favorite comic novels should look and sound.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

As faithful to the spirit of the novel, and the era that inspired it, as a movie could be yet still feel as fresh as Paris Hilton dish on Page Six.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

A witty, energetic adaptation.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Fry's film has the frantic energy and kaleidoscopic style of Waugh's feverish prose.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Acridly funny.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Both script and direction are the work of the glittering comedic polymath Stephen Fry.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

An enjoyable movie that marks a rattling good directorial debut for Stephen Fry, the English actor who's best known for starring in "Wilde" seven years ago.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Engaging, energetic film.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Essentially, the film stays at the party too long. But for a good stretch, its combination of twirling excitement and dry absurdity captures the spirit of characters too intoxicated to realize they're dancing over a chasm.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

There's no denying that Fry's movie is all the livelier for its gay embellishment.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The performance that comes closest to capturing the Waugh elixir is Fenella Woolgar's as madcapping Miss Runcible, who ultimately commandeers a racing car.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The film stumbles a bit in its third act, when war kills the good times for good.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

It fails to dig beneath that surface picture and offer up anything in the way of explanation or motivation.

Film Threat Daniel Wible

Fun, giddy, and intoxicating as the endless soirees in which it revels.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Fry's saving grace is his love of actors. The younger and less familiar performers are more than adequate, but it's the older guard that shines. Broadbent is marvelously rummy.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Lacks the novel's drier-than-dry bite, but compensates with a strong ensemble cast and a series of glamorous party sequences in which the decor has at least as much depth as the guests.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Despite some moments, the movie stubbornly fails to be the kind of sparkling ensemble piece one would expect from its credits -- and the fault seems to lie squarely with Fry's unfocused script, lackadaisical direction and conceptual sleight of hand.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Ultimately, though, the lively whirl of debauched, drug-fueled parties and toffee-nosed exchanges between heiresses and aristocrats fails to mask the essential hollowness of the narrative.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

By the time Fry lets darkness encroach on these bright young things, the fizz is gone, and so is any reason to make us give a damn.

Variety Derek Elley

An easy-to-digest slice of literate entertainment for upscale and older audiences that lacks a significant emotional undertow to make it a truly involving -- rather than simply voyeuristic -- experience.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Soon settles down into a drizzle of steady mediocrity, never living up to all the frenzy of those first few moments.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Worse still is his idiotic tampering with the so-called "Happy Ending" -- in print, it's bleakly ironic; on screen, incongruously sentimental.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Noisy and giddy, the film makes a stab at "Moulin Rouge" territory but ends up as a very trite story of boy loses girl, boy finds girl. It is also stridently camp -- not so much roaring '20s as screaming.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Under his (Fry’s) direction this 2003 British feature becomes a flat, depressing affair.

Village Voice Ed Park

Aside from cameos by Jim Broadbent (as the drunken major) and Peter O'Toole (as Nina's reclusive, eccentric father), much of the acting strains for a sophistication that quickly becomes annoying.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The movie, alas, is shackled somewhat by Waugh's original, pedestrian plot, which is too full of discrete incidents and slow to form an overarching story.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

B Keown gave it a 9:
Perhaps not the most sophisticated movie that has been made to date, but this is a film with heart--from the director who clearly adores the subject to the actors who show these people in all their bizarre but natural self and not a Hollywood Camp silhouette to the details of the set and sound. A high quality film that those with a good taste for history, literature and fun will appreciate.

Tony gave it a 4:
It came close to being really good. A few little changes would have made it much more enjoyable. I'd like to say what those changes would be, but that would give something away.

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Bright Young Things ThinkFilm Inc.

Bright Young Things
ThinkFilm Inc.