Peter's Friends

Plot synopsis:
It is New Year's weekend and the friends of Peter (Fry) gather at his newly inherited country house. Ten years ago, they all acted together in a Cambridge University student comedy troupe. Since then they have gone in different directions and career paths.
Peter's friends are Andrew (Branagh), now a writer in Hollywood; married jingle writers Roger (Laurie) and Mary (Staunton); glamorous costume designer Sarah (Emmanuel); and eccentric Maggie (Thompson), who works in publishing. Joining them are Carol (Rudner), the American TV star wife of Andrew; and the impolite Brian (Slattery), Sarah's very recently acquired lover. Also accompanying them are Vera, Peter's long-serving housekeeper (Law), and her son Paul (Lowe).
Peter's father has recently died, and Peter plans to sell the house after this last party. Andrew and Carol's marriage is strained by the demands of her fame. Roger and Mary are recovering from a devastating personal tragedy only slowly revealed to the audience: the death of one of their children. A lonely Maggie is determined to persuade Peter they should be more than just friends, and Sarah's not as happy with her life as she appears.
The weekend does not go as planned. After a failed attempt to seduce Peter, Maggie receives a makeover from Carol and seduces Paul. Carol leaves Andrew and returns to America, and after a year of sobriety Andrew returns to the bottle. Roger and Mary reach an emotional breakthrough, share their grief and address her obsessive overprotection of their remaining child. Brian returns to his wife after realizing that Sarah is not interested in that which she already has, but only in that which belongs to someone else. In the climax of the film, Peter reveals the real reason for his bringing them all together: he is HIV-positive. The friends emerge from their own problems and pledge their assistance to Peter, and the weekend ends on a more upbeat note.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Roger and Mary have just lost a child,Maggie is trying to find a man and has her eye on Peter, who is definitely not interested,Sarah is involved with a married man and seems to have trouble getting involved with anyone who's available,Andrew and his Hollywood actress wife are having marriage problems.This movie is well acted, the script is well written,thanks to Rita Rudner and her husband Martin Bergman and the casting is excellent.
Starring Stephen Fry as Peter,Kenneth Branagh as Andrew,Hugh Laurie as Roger,Emma Thompson as Maggie,Alphonsia Emmanuel as Sarah and Imelda Staunton as Mary.With Rita Rudner as Carol..
In a way, I can see that, but where the "Big Chill" focuses on how much the characters have changed since college, "Peter's Friend's" does a good job of showing how the characters really HAVEN'T changed since then.
Just because Emma Thompson is the only one to win an Oscar doesn't mean the others are slackers!!The one thing I've had to accept, though, is that in 7 years, it has become dated--especially the reason why Peter decides to bring his old college buddies together.
And even more, I am able to relate to the story that Kenneth Branagh's wonderful alternative to It's A Wonderful Life as a holiday film.Today it makes me laugh.
And there's Andrew (Kenneth Branagh) who's unhappily married to TV star Carol (Rita Rudner).This was called a rip off of "The Big Chill".
Therein lies a possible weakness: the film has a straight-jacket feel to it, as though indeed it was too severely and strictly transposed from the stage to the screen.Very much in the vein of a `battle of the sexes', we have in `Peter's Friends' several couples meeting some years after graduating, supposedly to remember old times.
It has been just about ten years since Peter last saw his group of University friends and, after his father died, he has inherited the family manor and decided to throw a reunion party for them.
The friends come together but the tensions and problems are barely hidden and quickly come out.Opening with the type of privately educated people that I personally find very difficult to relate to, this film immediately had me on the backfoot and worried thanks to this and the sheer volume of luvvies in the cast.
Dear IMDb, Here is an excerpt of the first draft of my proposed sequel, "Who Cares About You And Your Snotty, Self-Possessed Friends Anyway, Peter?"Kenneth Brannagh (smiling coyly)Isn't my life just so terribly interesting that the world would line up to see a thinly-veiled fictionalization of it?The World (yawns)Not particularly, no.This movie is the very definition of "vanity project" by a pretentious actor-director who's canon of work seems meant to bring "culture" back to mainstream cinema but always does so in a heavy-handed fashion.
Of the film, despite an interesting concept, some good moments and a talented cast I found this film disjointed, emotionally cold, only rarely witty, and even faintly unbelievable at times --the scene where Thompson breaks down and cries is so reserved and smug it's like she can never really let go- which she never does in anything she's in anyway!It's rather as if they want to thinly satirize themselves- but only thinly, as if they take themselves too seriously to open themselves to self-mockery.
For a better take on this concept, I recommend the 1998 film "Final Cut" starring Jude Law which has the current mob of Britpack actors playing themselves in an improvised film-- often times for laughs.It's amazing how far Branagh's star has fallen since 1992 when he was The Olivier People Actually Liked.
"Peter's Friends" can be seen as a British version of "The Big Chill".
Like the American film, it deals with a group of old university friends meeting up several years after graduating.
In 1992 Peter, the son of an aristocratic family, invites his friends to celebrate New Year at the stately home he has recently inherited from his father.
Thereafter the revelations come thick and fast, the final one, involving Peter himself, coming right at the end.The comedy troupe was obviously based on the famous "Footlights" to which cast members Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery all belonged, although the rather naff sketch we see them performing might indicate why none of the fictitious characters, unlike their real- life counterparts, have gone on to become professional comedians.
I myself was a Cambridge contemporary of some of the cast, and knew Stephen Fry personally).A film like this one could easily have ended up as little more than a country-house soap opera for intellectuals.
Special mention should go to Stephen Fry as the kindly but haunted Peter, Kenneth Branagh (who also directed and produced) as the recovering alcoholic Andrew, struggling to cope with the demands of his Hollywood writing career and with marriage to the tempestuous Carol, Branagh's then wife Emma Thompson as the frumpy Maggie, Tony Slattery as the arrogant, bumptious Brian and Alphonsia Emmanuel (an actress I have not heard much of recently) as Sarah.
There is a nice contrast between Hugh Laurie's Roger and Imelda Staunton's Mary, both recovering from their shared tragedy but in very different ways."Peter's Friends" is in many ways a very British film, just as "The Big Chill" was very American.
Although it involves strong emotions, several of the characters deal with them with a typical British reserve and "stiff upper lip"; this is particularly true of Peter himself, Roger and Maggie, and to some extent of Andrew, although he loses his stiff upper lip when under the influence of alcohol.
The pair's eclectic brand of wit is, however, somewhat subdued in this bittersweet drama from director Kenneth Branagh, which concerns six college friends who reunite a decade later to catch up on old times and pick up the shattered fragments of their middle-aged lives.
First and foremost, 'Peter's Friends (1992)' boasts an excellent, intimate cast, including Emma Thompson, Imelda Staunton and Branagh himself.
Stephen Fry seems a bit flustered in the title role, seemingly uncomfortable playing such a sincere, polite character, though there are snippets of his usual trademark flamboyance; Laurie, however, predictably excels in a tough dramatic role.Branagh shoots the film in gracefully-moving long takes, some single shots encompassing five minutes of action or dialogue.
I was (and remain) a fan of many of the actors, enjoyed Rita Rudner's comedy, and had been impressed with Kenneth Branagh's work to date.But I never got around to seeing it until recently, and now I understand why it received middling to poor reviews on its release.From the first scene following the opening montage, the entire film feels simultaneously flat and strident.
Three of the best I would pick out: (1) Maggie disrobing in front of Peter "fill me with your little babies" before he tells her he's "not in the vagina business"; (2) breakfast in the kitchen where they all hear 'bonking noises' and think it's Sarah and Brian but then Sarah comes down - Andrew says "That is one mighty long dick"; (3) Andrew gets drunk on the new year and apologises hundreds of times in the last few minutes of the movie.
It came out at a time when Kenneth and Emma were the flavour of the month and could get away with any old rubbish, hence this film.
How come that such an illustrious cast produced moments, and not just moments, of embarassingly bad acting?Stephen Fry is on the whole bearable, also Hugh Laurie, but the guy playing Sara's love interest is painful to watch.
I cannot understand the bad reviews, nor can I understand why people are comparing it to " The Big Chill" ( another great film but different).
You want everyone to be the same, but they're not.Peter invites a group of his old university friends to a party at his recently deceased father's mansion.
The friends have not all seen each other since they graduated in 1982, although have individually stayed in touch during that time.As with this type of film things don't go according to the host's plans as the lives of each member of the group are revealed - Roger and Mary have suffered an enormous tragedy, losing a baby to cot death, and as a couple are not dealing with how it has affected their relationship.
The script isn't laugh out loud funny but is witty in that way British comedy films usually are - a mix of self-deprecation, sarcasm and one liners.
I was 15 at the time, and wasn't really into a lot of the films my peers were into!25 years after it was made I still really enjoy Peter's Friends although now I can see some flaws - it is a bit of a "love-in" of Kenneth Branagh's friends, a bit too sentimental and mushy in places, as well as slightly slow in the middle.
The plot is by no means a new one - old university friends get together 10 years later and talk a lot about their lives and how they have not become the persons they thought they would.
Rita Rudner (who co-wrote the movie) is also funny as Kenneth Branagh's neurotic Hollywood wife.It's a watchable movie but there are few surprises and one can't help but feel that Branagh and Emma Thompson are not even stretching their acting muscles here.
I love all the actors in this film, and the idea of them all still being friends after so many years was nice but I sometimes thought the acting was weak in parts and the ending was quite anti-climatic.
Like a follow up or something.Also I think Hugh Laurie didn't have a big enough part, and there was too much focus on some of the minor characters such as the American wife (can't remember her name) and the sex addict's boyfriend.But a great film, with classic British (and Fry) humour, and also a great sound track!.
Knowing we were basically watching "Kenneth's Friends" with various points of similarity to the actors' real lives put an unfortunate air of "vanity project" about the movie.How ironic that comments here have commented on the extreme Britishness of the writing, when at least one of the two screenwriters was American.
Rita Rudner slipped at least one line from her stand-up act into the movie (about not falling in love), and found a way for one of the characters to praise the line too.Those who are in denial about similarities to The Big Chill are just in denial.
Branagh is fantastic (like always), Laurie doesn't get too much screen time but he functions perfectly as a husband who loves his wife but is having problems dealing with their son's death and the crumbling of their marriage.
Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are absolutely fabulous actors in this film.
The trailer and description made this film seem like a comedy, and in some parts it is, but it's really a touching story of a bunch of friends going through some hard times in their lives.
Peter (Stephen Fry) hosts a new year's reunion of college friends and their partners at the English country house (read: mansion) he has just inherited from his father.
Peter, excellently played by Stephen Fry, makes a courteous host, friend and confidante to all, reluctant to burden his friends with a problem far more stunning than anything his friends have been faced with (perhaps Roger and Mary's is on a par?).But I have tried and tried, and watched this film over and over and I still feel as though I have somehow missed a key scene that would help me understand Brian.
A line from him after upsetting Mary states, "It's not like me to put my foot in it" - how ironic when he spends the rest of his time in the film spoiling the moment (particularly after the revue group's lovely song by the piano) and upsetting others.
Branagh's direction leaves some direction to be desired, but it's exactly that slightly amateurish feel to it that makes the film tick.When I watched "Peter's friends" for the first time more than ten years ago, it struck me as a slow-paced movie, quirky but fun.
My wife and I fell in love with this film the first time we saw it in a small dingy cinema in Manchester, UK, on New Year's Day 1993.All of which made it more poignant for us, as the film is set at exactly that time - New Year's Eve, 1992/3.Peter (Stephen Fry) has invited all of his University 'chums' to visit him at his manor house, recently inherited after the death of his father (played in a brief cameo by Richard Briers).A flashback scene to a Cambridge footlights style review (incidentally, source of many of the actors in the flick) leads to a montage of images displayed to the music of Tears for Fear's "Everybody wants to rule the world." And it it a coincidence that the last image of the opening montage - that of John Major - cuts brilliantly to a paddock full of sheep?
What follows is very good character development, as Peter's Friends - a couple of jingle writers (Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie), a Hollywood actress and her script writing husband (Rita Rudner and Kenneth Branagh), a new age publisher (Emma Thompson) and a relationship-challenged woman and her latest boyfriend (Tony Slattery) arrive and start to interact.Old secrets come out, many of them relationship based ("You slept with that f**kmonster!", "You slept with Sarah!
Peter's friends have that veneer of Cambridge charm and sophistication that vanishes fairly rapidly unless they are allowed their own way all the time.Peter himself is a little more personable,but the unfortunate chap is suffering from Aids and not long for this world.On inheriting the family home from his father(actually Wrotham Park in Herts,also used in "Gosford Park"),Peter asks all his "Footlights" chums for a last get together.But ten years on,they are all carrying a lot of baggage.There is not innately an awful lot wrong with this movie and it says a lot for Kenneth Branagh's strength of character that he went on from directing this "safe" subject to the rather more challenging "Hamlet" and "Much ado about nothing" with splendid success Stephen Fry is the most sympathetic character character in the film ,all the others are fighting mental demons of one sort or the other whilst Peter has the sublime aura of peace that sometimes settles on the tragically doomed.
At the start of the movie Peter's friends gather round the piano and sing"The way you look tonight" very nicely.This scene captures the insular but rather naive and touching mutual love and dependence Cambridge Thesps display throughout their careers.
I thought it was ironic that Branagh's American arch-bitch actress wife, played by Rita Rudner, is the only character in the whole film who actually puts herself out to do something for someone else, when she comforts a distraught Emma Thompson after the latter's rejection by Peter, and gives her a makeover and new hairdo to make her feel better.
"Peter's Friends" is so melodramatic, so full of whining and crying and complaining and "I'm sorry!"  The plot set-up is manipulative and the ending gets too pat.At the start, as "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" plays on the soundtrack and as important 1980s events are shown on the screen, 10 years are passing for a group of two-bit actors.
A VERY disappointing effort from a group of actors who can do and have done a LOT better, in such films as "Much Ado About Nothing," "Sense and Sensibility" and others."Peter's Friends" is not really worth your time..
Peter's Friends is directed by Kenneth Branagh.
The film stars Stephen Fry, Kenneth, Branagh, Imelda Staunton,Alphonsia Emmanuel,Hugh Laurie,Emma Thompson,Phyllida Law, Tony Slattery and Rita Rudner.A group of university friends come together again after several years apart, when they are invited to a New Year Eve party at the home of Peter(Stephen Fry).Andrew (Kenneth Branagh)brings his actress wife Carol(Rita Rudner),the pair are drifting apart but don't seem to want to acknowledge that fact.Roger and Mary(Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton)have married and have suffered the recent tragedy of the death of one of their twins, Mary is now constantly worried about the other one and can never relax because she is convinced something bad will happen him.Funny,sex crazed Sarah(Alphonsia Emmanuel)brings her boyfriend Brian(Tony Slattery).
There's also the shy and awkward Maggie (Emma Thompson)who's struggling with her romantic feelings for Peter.Over delicious food the gang realise they never want to lose touch again, especially when Peter reveals some devastating news about himself.It's easy to see why some people refer to this as a British Big Chill but unlike that film this one has some weaknesses.
Many changes have taken place in the lives of all the friends assembled, but Peter has a secret to tell......Luvvie Alert!!!!!!!!!Depending on your age and your appreciation of British TV in the late eighties and early nineties will swerve on your opinion of this film.Basically, if you like A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Blackadder, Who's Line Is It Anyway, The Tall Guy, and any Sitcom that featured a middle class family, person, or Business,methane this is the movie for you.If you said no to the above, then you mat find this a little bit snobby, and a little bit too smug for its own good.
So frustrating to see fine actors like Thompson, Laurie, Staunton, and Branagh have so few places to go.
The only sympathetic character is Vera the housekeeper, who announces her departure towards the end - but not before some absurd scenes involving her wood-chopping son, including a chatting-up by Sarah and a woman-on-top bonk with Emma Thompson.Branagh's representation of a drunk was certainly not a performance that contributed to his later knighthood.Peter's Friends is a film, full of luvvies pretending to poke fun at themselves, but obviously without believing a word of it, and hoping to earn enough from it to keep them in the style they think their superior intelligence deserves.