British chap. Seems to like plays.
Betrayal (1983) -- The play Betrayal was written over twenty years before the told-in-reverse movie we're now familiar with, Memento, and it works a lot better, but then again I'm a big Harold Pinter fan. Although the play is great, the movie fails a little in the actors' performances. Jeremy Irons and Ben Kingsley are of course great actors, but the fact that any yelling or excessive emotion in this movie would be overacting makes them over-actors. They are supposed to play their parts completely flat and detached, but their acting instincts won't let them. But, I'll say it again, I'm a big Harold Pinter fan (dare I say scholar), so I understand his brain a lot better than they did. If only I'd been around. If only... (Still, it's a pretty decent adaptation.) B
Look Back in Anger (1989) -- Directed with Judi Dench. The John Osbourne play isn't the greatest thing in the world to begin with, so if you can stand to watch Kenneth Branagh yelling for two hours and Emma Thompson stage ironing, then it's as good or better than reading the play or seeing any other performance. B
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