Customer Reviews

Sweet Revenge

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

British humor is distinctly different from American humor and this film illustrates that point nicely. American humor hits you with a sledgehammer, with outrageous gags and extremely explicit content. British humor is full of innuendo, irony and subtlety. It is thoughtful wit, full of "aha!" moments. This is why Americans often refer to British humor as being dry, mostly because we don't like pondering over our comedy. We prefer a guffaw to a good snicker.

In this film, Karen (Helena Bonham Carter) and Henry (Sam Neill) meet one night on a bridge where they both went to commit suicide. Henry is interrupted from jumping by the cries of Karen who has botched her attempt. After he saves her, they commiserate and decide that getting revenge would be better than committing suicide. They make a pact where each of them agrees to even the score for the other with their respective objects of contempt.

Karen becomes a secretary to Henry's old boss (Steve Coogan) and proceeds to make his life a living hell, convincing his wife he is having an affair. Henry's target is Imogen (Kristen Scott Thomas), whom Karen hates because she stole her husband back from Karen, with whom he was having an affair. The film is replete with highbrow humor that you would only see in an English film. There is plenty of class-warfare comedy poking fun at the aristocracy.

Helena Bonham Cater is brilliantly droll as the diabolical Karen. She is deliciously evil as she cunningly plots Bruce's demise. Long known as a terrific dramatic actor, Bonham Carter shows here that she can convert that energy into an intensely offbeat and funny character with equal impact. Sam Neill is also entertaining as Henry, a bumbling victim of fate who allows himself to be swept along by circumstances. Kristin Scott Thomas does a superb job of portraying Imogen, a woman steeped in affectation and arrogance, who ultimately becomes a casualty of love.

This highly entertaining film requires a certain refined sense of humor to enjoy. I rated it an 8/10. It will lack punch for the average viewer, but for the viewer who enjoys subtlety and irony it will be amusing and enjoyable.

I used to go to the theater frequently and one playwright I came to adore was Alan Ayckbourn from the UK. He was to comedic plays what playwrights David Mamet and Sam Shepherd were to dramatic ones. Ayckbourn's gift is to hit dead on the essential underpinnings of the British middle and upper classes and set them up for laughter amidst a rollicking good story line. I was absolutely astounded to discover how good Helena Bonham-Carter is doing comedic material. When I first put the disk on the player, hubby saw she was in it and groaned, being convinced she plays nothing other than sullen witches. He was even more astounded than I was by the utterly transformed Bonham-Carter. The basic premise of the comedy is simple. Bonham-Carter will get revenge on Neill's competitor who stole his job. In exchange, Neill will wreck revenge upon the wife of Bonham-Carter's former lover. This leads to one hilarious scene after another with the high point being a duel in the woods, with shotguns, between Neill and the former lover. Only Ayckbourn could come up with 2 Brits using shotguns instead of dueling pistols in the name of honor and make it gently humorous instead of outright Monty Python zaney. If you have never seen an Ayckbourn play or film before, you are in for a treat. Ayckbourn becomes an acquired taste along the way that no other playwright fills quite as well in his little niche British world.

As the story begins, Henry (Sam Neill) has lost his job to an unscrupulous co-worker, and has decided to end it all by jumping off Tower Bridge. There he meets eccentric Karen (Helena Bonham Carter) who has just bungled her own suicide attempt (her lover went back to his wife). They start talking about how much they wish their enemies were dead and Karen gleefully suggests they each do the job for the other. Henry assumes she's kidding, of course, but the next morning he finds Karen has gone ahead with the plan.

If you think this plot sounds a lot like Hitchcock's thriller, "Strangers on a Train," you're right. The difference is this one's played for big laughs with dark humor that I really enjoyed. Neill is very good as the innocent man who gets caught up in the wacky plot hatched by Bonham Carter's character. She steals the show with her outrageous cheekiness. Kristin Scott Thomas is the lover's haughty wife, and no one plays the disdainful aristocrat better than she does. Comic actor Steve Coogan is hysterical as Henry's nemesis. If you like British comedies, you'll love "Sweet Revenge;" it's fast, funny, and loaded with droll upper-class humor. Excellent!

Kona

I loved every second of this film. I can't imagine how anyone could not like it. It's funny, full of talented actors esp Sam Neill. Thoroughly entertaining!! A great buy.

Sweet Revenge is a very funny and captivating movie. Especially if
you like English mysteries.

Taking a cue from American ex-pat Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, playwright Alan Ayckbourn penned the plays on which Sweet Revenge was based, in whith two strangers each agree to bump off the person causing him/her the most misery in their respective lives.

Of course Ayckbourn can't duplicate what Highsmith had already brilliantly done, so he starts things off with both parties being suicidal (definitely NOT part of the Highsmith story), then moves in very different directions from Highsmith indeed.

Malcolm Mowbray, the talented director of this movie, (he also directed another punchy black comedy, but set in the States, Out Cold--with Teri Garr, John Lithgow and Randy Quaid--highly recommended), has done a great job deftly blending wry British humor with black comedy (very black, indeed) as well as romantic highjinks and some outright guffaws.

When you see sparrows blithely flying around a living room, part of a huge mansion in which the younger son rides his motor scooter on a regular basis and the older sister (one of the two parties involved in the revenge pact) changes her appearance in the blink of an artistocratic eye, you can tell there's a lot of fun to be had.

And there is. Highsmith's story has no comedy whatsoever, but Ayckbourn is a master of this mesh of comedy and biting stuff, and that comes across beautifully in this film version. The acting by the three leads (Sam Neill, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Helena Bonham Carter) is great, with the definite nod for scene stealer going to Ms. Carter, who seems capable of doing basically anything in front of a camera (see Fight Club and Twelfth Night for radically different and consistently excellent performances).

A very nice piece of work. Recommended!

I generally enjoy British comedies and prefer a good, thoughtful snicker over slapstick fun. When I watched this, I wanted to like it. And when I read the reviews after watching it, I'm really trying to like it. But I can't entirely agree with the other reviews...not because they're wrong, just my taste differs.

I feel like the movie had so many great elements (including as others have said some excellent acting) and could have been truly hilarious, but it just went a little off kilter somewhere and couldn't quite stay on track. Just as you warmed up to one element, something else would spoil the moment.

My initial reaction was "what a crazy movie!" Karen appears to be a complete maniac and Henry is extremely slow to catch on in some ways (i.e., he realizes Karen is quite dangerous from the start but doesn't seem to have any other way of dealing with her than really unitelligent honesty). The brother Oliver is great and there are a lot of small scenes that the film does quite well (when the kippers cause an embarassing stain, the way the young maid Norma is treated, etc).

But I disagree that Imogen was affected and arrogant. She responded to the view of Karen (her husband's former mistress) with the cold fury of someone attempting to maintain composure in the face of great strain. If a spouse brought me to an outing with their former "lover", I'd be pretty mad too. Her first comment to Henry is indicative of her frustration and she says it without thinking.

But how would anyone like Karen or Imogen find Anthony appealing? I found it farfetched how quickly Imogen fell for Henry and vice versa, upon their second meeting he tries to kiss her. And it seems unlikely that someone who suffered from frequent asthma would not carry their ventilator in their pocket (but maybe I am uninformed on this score).

Towards the end, it began lacking a feeling of cohesion and felt more like random funny moments appended to each other. The ending didn't feel like you arrived at a destination, more like it just stopped somewhere when we ran out of time and patched on a quick finish. Anyway, some people liked this so it's definitely got a following, just didn't appeal to me. Maybe it will grow on me in time.

I purchased this because of the rave reviews on Amazon and because I loved Aykbourn's brilliant The Norman Conquests. But this film, while it has its moments, is a studiously black comedy that doesn't come off. It works too hard at being completely off the wall, and ultimately disappoints. It's just mayhem, designed to draw laughs. Well, it does, but only occasionally. (Imagine playing Count Basie at the expiration of a villain. That's Mel Brooks country.) Yes, Helena Bonham Carter is an excellent actress. But it's all so contrived, complete with a wink at the camera at the end. Save your money.

This is a true waste of talent! Talk about horrible flicks, this is a prime example! The only reason why I even BOTHERED to finish watching this film is because of the excellent acting of Bonham Carter and Neill. A complete no brainer comedy about the extremes in revenge. Good sleeping pill.