Review of The Rachel Papers (1989) by Kerry R — 05 Nov 2009

I first became aware of The Rachel Papers at least a decade ago,i saw it by chance one evening whilst searching through basic tv channels,(before I had digital)i caught sight of james spader at first and thought "i like him,ill watch this film for a while",then appeared dexter fletcher,i had already heard of him through a few other tv shows,as soon as I layed my eyes upon him I was hooked,his charachter Charles Highway came accross as too sure of himself at fist,especialy with his idea of meeting women and storing his conquests on a disc for his pc,But as soon as he meets Rachel Noyce you see his vunerability straight away,although its blatently obvious that he wants to get Rachel in to bed you kind of want her to accept his date invitations,Charles becomes more and more endearing throughout the movie,completely overshadowing James Spader,who at this point seemed to be more well known than Dexter Fletcher,Deforest,Spaders Charachter dull,so making charles highyway even more interesting than he already was,Rachel Noyce,aka ione skye,this was only the second movie I had seen her in having previously seen her star in Rivers Edge with Keanu Reeves in his debut,her charachter is believable,she comes accross as a rich kid with everything,including a boyfriend,but thats not the real her,she is just as vunerable as charles,and that is probabley the reason why she fell for his charms,because I would have,Then it gets serious,Rachel having to go back home from charles parents home as Deforest follows her,Charles quite obviousley gutted,and its not just because he finaly got to the point where he and rachel would end up in bed,he was falling for her and you could see the pain he was feeling,cut the lonely figure,not changing his clothes for days drinking,generaly feeling and looking terrible,Then at last his brother in law has bumped in to Rachel and brought her home to see charles,upon seeing Rachel again it takes charles a few minutes to realise she realy does want to see him in more ways than one,cue the music and the satirical charles running to the shower fullyclothed and tidying his room in what seemed like two minutes,Crack open the champagne they finaly end up in bed,and so the affair begins,lots of sex but at times it seems one sided,like charles said "To Rachel sex was disneyland and he was the ride",It becomes apparent that charles is begining to tire of rachel,having her live with him for a few days he sees a side to her he never thought possible,Basicaly she maybe be young and elegant and beautiful but shes a slob,leaving her plate of food under the bed,throwing rubbish on the floor,charles did not invisage she would be this way,he was thinking of her in a different way entirely,thus upon her returning home he recieves a visit from a past conquest,Gloria,you just know whats going to happen,and it does,Rachel comes back to tell charles that her mother knows about them,and she expects sex,thats when charles is caught out,literaly,she guesses what has happened and quite rightly is angry,At first charles looks like he is going to give rachel the "Its not you its me" speech,Until rachel stops him in his tracks,She knew what charles was about from the minute she met him and thats the reason she fell for him,he did not need to pretend to be some one he wasnt,because rachel showed him who she was,So she had told a little lie about her father earlier in the film but you can forgive her that,So charles now alone at his computer deleting his conquests,he ponders for a second about deleting his conquest The Rachel Papers,which he does,Charles has now been summoned to the office of his college/university,(Because believe it or not during all that women chasing and conquest file updating charles was actualy very intelligent and sitting exams and moving to pastures new in his education)Basicaly his headmaster or what ever he was wanted to know why charles can not tell things how they are,The teacher says "say what you mean,if you like something or not ,just say so,forget all the other rubbish,if you like something,say so",Finaly the penny drops for charles,its Rachel!He loves rachel,it didnt matter about the other stuff,the slobbishness,she was what mattered,Rushing to her mums house with flowers and wine in hand he finds she has gone,left for new york,what seems like a friutless trip to the airport thus ensues,Aww hes too late,the plane is leaving,its then that you think,charles you idiot,i felt sorry for you when she left with deforest earlier,then you let her go again,this time for good,Fastforward a few months and charles bumps in to rachel at the hays gallery in london,they chat and its pleasent,after a peck on the cheek goodbye charles watches rachel walk away,with a cheeky grin you know what hes thinking,but you also know the he did love her,its just a shame he didn realise sooner,I loved this film,i was hooked from the moment I saw it,although I thought dexter looked young in the film he pulled off the image he wanted to,ione skye was perfect as rachel,a great touch with johnathan pryce as charles brother in law,all the cast were great,lesley sharp as his sister,james spader as deforest,i found them all believable,i had not actualy heard of the book but I loved the film,i class it as one of my all time favourites,i recommend it to anyone that has has not seen it,even though its twenty year old,ten out of ten.

kerry.