Customer Reviews

Twenty One [VHS]

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I love this movie and I can't help it. I came of age at the same time as the movie's heroine, Katie, and found a lot to which I could relate, minus the married lover and the junkie boyfriend. The story is told in flashbacks, and follows the life and loves of 21-year Katie, a sassy and free-spirited, if not very sensible, young woman living in London. Katie doesn't make the greatest of decisions, but she's tough and witty. She is archly played by Patsy Kensit (former wife of one of the Brothers Gallagher, I believe) who is luminous in the role. The story is very slice-of-life and shot like a documentary, as was the trend in the early 90s. The story is a bit uneven and somewhat tedious, but there is plenty of charm. There are some poignant moments too, such as Katie, living in a New York loft in the present, singing softly along to Nina Simone's "I Want Some Sugar In My Bowl," and reflecting on the death of her boyfriend. Though it is one of my favorites, this movie does not have mass appeal. It's best watched alone on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a glass of wine.

"I'm young and sexy,and I can do whatever I want" Say Katie. The trials and tribulations is shown through Katie's eyes. Katie can be sweet and very sexy, shaging the groom at his own wedding. Katie has a whirlwind of a romance with a Jock with a dope problem. Dose Katie leave him like a decent woman would. NO the silly cow stays with him. I am touched when Katie walks on the Jock shooting up in her bathroom. "Kaite promise you'll never leave me". His says
This movie copes with her friends the girfriend that never shuts up. The dim-witted Jamcian thats needs a wife just to stay in England, out of friendship Katie marry hims. Katie sods of to New York.

Having finally seen 'Twenty-One', it struck me how much of air of melancholy hangs over the film - even ennui. It's almost as if the film represents a kind of quiet, bittersweet recognition that the 'freedom' and 'individualism' promised by the Conservative regime of the 1980s turned out to be cold comfort, after the various shades of grey offered by state socialism had become 'so last century!'. In that sense, just as the apparently tiresome luxury of her life mirrors the dull compulsion of the marketplace (with only a heroin-addicted boyfriend and migrant musician able to add 'earthy' colours) Kensit's character seems to be rummaging around in the hinterlands of her psyche hoping she'll find a rationale for the belief that loneliness and soulless sex can be life-affirming. I realise this might read as - how can I put it - utter bollocks, but it's just something that came to me while watching the darn thing. Anyway, it's one of 3 decent films Kensit has starred in - the other 2 being Angels and Insects (1995) and Grace of My Heart (1996).