Review of An Awfully Big Adventure (1995) by Courtney W — 29 May 2009

[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]I love Alan Rickman, this is no big secret. I plan on seeing all of his films (I own a startling amount on DVD) whether they are good, bad or terrible. Granted, [i]An Awfully Big Adventure[/i] is not as bad as [i]Dark Harbor [/i]or [i]Judas Kiss[/i] and is overall a great-looking film and well directed. The main problem is that the film happens to suffer from false advertisement and misleading ideas that it is somehow a) a comedy and b) an adventure, when in all actuality it is a big fat tragedy with some quirky characters spliced in.[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]By the look of the film it had to be after Mike Newell directed Hugh Grant in [i]Four Weddings and a Funeral[/i] and when Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman were both in the sublime [i]Sense and Sensibillity. [/i]Personally, I think Alan Rickman looks fantastic in this film, but hell, I am biased.[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]The film revolves around 16 year old Stella Bradshaw (Georgina Cates) in post-WWII Liverpool. She gets a job as an actress--well, actually a stagehand, where she meets crazy actors, really depraved men who are bent on showing her their naughty bits and she ends up fallling in love with the company's haughty (and gay, which is obvious to everyone other than Stella) director played by Hugh Grant.[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]So, when Ceaser falls down the stairs during a production (the film's only true comedic moment) and is unable to play Captain Hook in the company's production of [i]Peter Pan[/i], they contact their most famous actor and Captain Hook, P.L. O' Hara (Alan Rickman), a slightly aging lothario who is on constant lookout for the woman he knocked up before the war and abandoned (or maybe she left him, I don't remember).[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]Naturally, he takes a shine to the young Stella. She decides to get the whole virginity issue "over with" and throws herself at him so he can deflower her so she can be ready for Hugh Grant when the time comes.[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]Yes, twisted, I know. What ensues are some of the most truly uncomfortable sex scenes I have EVER encountered. I kinda got the gist of the big twist ending toward the middle of the film and needless to say, Beth and I were completely horrified that I was right. I am never right about that crap--except for the horribly twisted and sordid stuff, it seems.[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]I won't ruin the big "surprise," but if you venture a guess in the most seedy direction possible, think Jerry Springer-wise, then you will get it. I was traumatized, even though I had it figured out.[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]Even though it was depressing, I was happy to see it. I mean, what would I do without horrible movies? I would have absolutely nothing to talk about. File [i]An Awfully Big Adventure [/i]under "The So Bad It's Good" category.[/color][/font].

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[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]Laters.[/color][/font].

[font=Trebuchet MS][color=yellow]Court[/color][/font].