An Awfully Big Adventure
Encyclopedia
An Awfully Big Adventure is a 1995 British coming-of-age film
directed by Mike Newell
. The story focuses on a teenage girl who joins a seedy theatre troupe in Liverpool
. During a winter production of Peter Pan
, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue.
The title is an ironic nod to the original Peter Pan story, in which Peter says "To die will be an awfully big adventure." Set during the years following World War II
, the film was adapted from the Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name
by Beryl Bainbridge
.
, a woman leaves her baby in a basement surrounded by flickering candles. Before departing from the house, she quickly drops a string of pearls on the child's pillow, twined around a single red rose.
Years later, 16-year-old Stella Bradshaw (Georgina Cates
) lives in a working class household with her Uncle Vernon (Alun Armstrong
) and Aunt Lily (Rita Tushingham
) in Liverpool
. Lacking an adult in her life that she feels close to, she frequently goes into phone booths to speak with her mother, who never appears in the film. Stella has no interest in schoolwork and her uncle, who sees a theatrical career as being her only alternative to working behind the counter at Woolworth’s
, signs her up for private drama lessons and pulls the strings to get her involved at a regional playhouse. After an unsuccessful audition, Stella gets a job gofering for Meredith Potter (Hugh Grant
), the troupe's sleazy, eccentric director.
The impressionable Stella develops a crush on the worldly, self-absorbed Potter, whose homosexuality completely eludes her. Potter turns out to be a cruel, apathetic man who treats Stella and everyone else around him with scorn and condescension and has a long history of exploiting young men. His latest dalliance is with Geoffrey (Alan Cox
), another teenage apprentice. Stella is quickly caught up in the backstage intrigue and also becomes the object of passes from several men surrounding the theatre company, among them P.L. O'Hara (Alan Rickman
), a brilliant actor who has returned to the troupe for a stint playing Captain Hook in its Christmas production of Peter Pan
. In keeping with theatrical tradition, O'Hara also doubles in the role of Mr. Darling.
O'Hara carries himself with grace and charisma, but privately is as troubled and disillusioned as the other members of the cast. Haunted by his wartime experiences and a lost love (who, he believes, bore him a son he never knew), O'Hara embarks on an affair with Stella, to whom he feels an inexplicably deep emotional connection. Stella, who still has her mind set on winning Potter's favor, remains emotionally detached but takes advantage of O'Hara's affections, seeing it as an opportunity to gain sexual experience. Disturbed by Stella's pursuance of the abusive Potter, O'Hara visits her aunt and uncle, who fill him in on Stella's history. He soon finds out that Stella's long-missing mother was his lost love, whom he then knew by the nickname Stella Maris, making Stella — who he's been sleeping with — his child, a daughter rather than the son he had imagined.
Keeping his discovery to himself, O'Hara gets on his motorcycle and drives back out to the seaport. Distracted, he slips on the wet gangplank, hits his head and is pitched into the water.
Potter takes on the role of Captain Hook for the last performance. Stella is later seen hastening to the phone booth to confide her woes over the phone to "her mother" — as has been her habit throughout the film. We are suddenly reminded that the absent Stella Maris had years ago won a nationwide contest to be the voice of the speaking clock. It is her recorded voice that provides the only response to her daughter's confidences.
, whose real name is Clare Woodgate, was initially declined when she first auditioned for the film. Upon rejection, she dyed her hair red, changed her name and reinvented herself as a teenage girl from Liverpool with no acting experience and applied again. The second time she got the role. Alan Rickman
was reportedly miffed when he found out her true age. According to Mike Newell
, he "treated her very tactfully, presuming that she was sexually inexperienced and could get upset by the scene."
The film was shot mostly in Dublin. The playhouse in the film was actually the Olympia Theatre
.
, the Irish folk song "The Last Rose of Summer
" is used as O'Hara's theme music throughout the film.
. However, Georgina Cates
received a London Film Critics Circle Award nomination for Best Actress of the Year and Mike Newell
was nominated for a Crystal Globe Award
for Best Director at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
.
wrote that "Rickman . . . is the most interesting thing going in this unwieldy muddle . . . There's a creepy allure to O'Hara, and it is his energy that moves the story along to its unsettling surprise ending." Edward Guthmann of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "This isn't a sentimental slice of British eccentricity, or a gentle glance at amateur theatricals and the oddballs who inhabit them . . . Instead, it's a sour, unpleasant experience that gives us every reason not to become involved. Newell, who directed Four Weddings with such a light touch and such fondness, leaves the impression here that he doesn't like his characters and doesn't mind if we don't, either."
Janet Maslin
of The New York Times
, however, felt that it captured "Mr. Grant as the clever, versatile character actor he was then becoming, rather than the international dreamboat he is today . . . [the film] isn't overly concerned with making its stars look good. Mr. Grant wears a monocle, has nicotine-stained fingers and appears in one scene looking dissolute and vomit-stained . . . As it turns out, a public relations blackout is only the least of this admirable film's problems. Its Liverpool accents are thickly impenetrable. And Ms. Bainbridge's book is elliptical to begin with, which guarantees that some of its fine points will be lost in translation. Mr. Newell directs his actors beautifully, but the screenplay by Charles Wood echoes Ms. Bainbridge in letting important information fly by obliquely. So listen closely. This is a dark, eccentric film that both requires and rewards keen attention."
Similarly, Joel Pearce of DVD Verdict
commented that "An Awfully Big Adventure is disappointing, but not because it's a bad movie . . . In fact, it's a good movie that's been the victim of extremely bad marketing . . . Hugh Grant is at his sleazy, sardonic best . . . Some elements of the film are too subtle, so it takes a while to figure out what's really going on."
Alan Rickman
has said that he felt the film suffered comparisons to Four Weddings and a Funeral
.
Coming-of-age film
Coming-of-age film is a film genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. Personal growth and change is an important characteristic of this genre, which relies on dialogue and emotional responses, rather than action. The main character is...
directed by Mike Newell
Mike Newell
Mike Newell is the name of:*Mike Newell , film director*Mike Newell , football manager and former player...
. The story focuses on a teenage girl who joins a seedy theatre troupe in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. During a winter production of Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue.
The title is an ironic nod to the original Peter Pan story, in which Peter says "To die will be an awfully big adventure." Set during the years following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the film was adapted from the Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name
An Awfully Big Adventure (novel)
An Awfully Big Adventure is a novel written by Beryl Bainbridge. It was short listed for the Booker Prize in 1990 and adapted as a movie in 1995...
by Beryl Bainbridge
Beryl Bainbridge
Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge, DBE was an English author from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her psychological novels, often set amongst the English working classes. Bainbridge won the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel in 1977 and 1996; she was nominated five times for the Booker...
.
Plot
In the film's prologuePrologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
, a woman leaves her baby in a basement surrounded by flickering candles. Before departing from the house, she quickly drops a string of pearls on the child's pillow, twined around a single red rose.
Years later, 16-year-old Stella Bradshaw (Georgina Cates
Georgina Cates
Georgina Cates is an English actress of film and television.-Biography:Born Clare Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, she attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke into television acting when she was only sixteen years old, playing the role of the original Jenny Porter on the BBC's...
) lives in a working class household with her Uncle Vernon (Alun Armstrong
Alun Armstrong (actor)
Alun Armstrong is a prolific British character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of...
) and Aunt Lily (Rita Tushingham
Rita Tushingham
-Career:Born in Liverpool, Tushingham began her career as a stage actress at the Liverpool Playhouse. Her screen debut was in A Taste of Honey...
) in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. Lacking an adult in her life that she feels close to, she frequently goes into phone booths to speak with her mother, who never appears in the film. Stella has no interest in schoolwork and her uncle, who sees a theatrical career as being her only alternative to working behind the counter at Woolworth’s
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
, signs her up for private drama lessons and pulls the strings to get her involved at a regional playhouse. After an unsuccessful audition, Stella gets a job gofering for Meredith Potter (Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
), the troupe's sleazy, eccentric director.
The impressionable Stella develops a crush on the worldly, self-absorbed Potter, whose homosexuality completely eludes her. Potter turns out to be a cruel, apathetic man who treats Stella and everyone else around him with scorn and condescension and has a long history of exploiting young men. His latest dalliance is with Geoffrey (Alan Cox
Alan Cox (actor)
-Biography:He is the son of the Emmy Award winning actor Brian Cox and his first wife Caroline Burt. Cox was educated at St Paul's School in London. He has a sister, Margaret, and a half brother Torin Kamran Charles....
), another teenage apprentice. Stella is quickly caught up in the backstage intrigue and also becomes the object of passes from several men surrounding the theatre company, among them P.L. O'Hara (Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
), a brilliant actor who has returned to the troupe for a stint playing Captain Hook in its Christmas production of Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
. In keeping with theatrical tradition, O'Hara also doubles in the role of Mr. Darling.
O'Hara carries himself with grace and charisma, but privately is as troubled and disillusioned as the other members of the cast. Haunted by his wartime experiences and a lost love (who, he believes, bore him a son he never knew), O'Hara embarks on an affair with Stella, to whom he feels an inexplicably deep emotional connection. Stella, who still has her mind set on winning Potter's favor, remains emotionally detached but takes advantage of O'Hara's affections, seeing it as an opportunity to gain sexual experience. Disturbed by Stella's pursuance of the abusive Potter, O'Hara visits her aunt and uncle, who fill him in on Stella's history. He soon finds out that Stella's long-missing mother was his lost love, whom he then knew by the nickname Stella Maris, making Stella — who he's been sleeping with — his child, a daughter rather than the son he had imagined.
Keeping his discovery to himself, O'Hara gets on his motorcycle and drives back out to the seaport. Distracted, he slips on the wet gangplank, hits his head and is pitched into the water.
Potter takes on the role of Captain Hook for the last performance. Stella is later seen hastening to the phone booth to confide her woes over the phone to "her mother" — as has been her habit throughout the film. We are suddenly reminded that the absent Stella Maris had years ago won a nationwide contest to be the voice of the speaking clock. It is her recorded voice that provides the only response to her daughter's confidences.
Cast
- Alan RickmanAlan RickmanAlan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
as P.L. O'Hara - Hugh GrantHugh GrantHugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
as Meredith Potter - Georgina CatesGeorgina CatesGeorgina Cates is an English actress of film and television.-Biography:Born Clare Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, she attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke into television acting when she was only sixteen years old, playing the role of the original Jenny Porter on the BBC's...
as Stella Bradshaw - Alun ArmstrongAlun Armstrong (actor)Alun Armstrong is a prolific British character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of...
as Uncle Vernon - Peter FirthPeter FirthPeter Firth is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC show Spooks, of which he is the only actor to have starred in every episode of the show's 10 series lifespan...
as Bunny - Carol DrinkwaterCarol DrinkwaterCarol Drinkwater is an Anglo-Irish actress and author, best known for her award-winning portrayal of Helen Herriot in the television adaptation of the James Herriot books, All Creatures Great and Small...
as Dawn Allenby - Rita TushinghamRita Tushingham-Career:Born in Liverpool, Tushingham began her career as a stage actress at the Liverpool Playhouse. Her screen debut was in A Taste of Honey...
as Aunt Lily - Prunella ScalesPrunella ScalesPrunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
as Rose Lipton - Edward PetherbridgeEdward PetherbridgeEdward Petherbridge is a British actor. Among his many roles, he portrayed Lord Peter Wimsey in several screen adaptations of Dorothy L...
as Richard St. Ives - Nicola PagettNicola PagettNicola Pagett is an English actress. She is best-known for her role as Elizabeth Bellamy in the 1970s TV drama series Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early life:She was educated at St...
as Dotty Blundell - Clive MerrisonClive MerrisonClive Merrison is a Welsh actor of film, television, stage and radio. He trained at Rose Bruford College.- Television :...
as Desmond Fairchild - Alan CoxAlan Cox (actor)-Biography:He is the son of the Emmy Award winning actor Brian Cox and his first wife Caroline Burt. Cox was educated at St Paul's School in London. He has a sister, Margaret, and a half brother Torin Kamran Charles....
as Geoffrey - James FrainJames FrainJames Dominic Frain is an English stage and screen actor. He is possibly best known for his role in the Showtime series The Tudors in which he appeared as Thomas Cromwell from 2007 to 2009, and for his role as vampire Franklin Mott in season three of the HBO drama True Blood, as well as his role...
as John Harbour
Production
Georgina CatesGeorgina Cates
Georgina Cates is an English actress of film and television.-Biography:Born Clare Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, she attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke into television acting when she was only sixteen years old, playing the role of the original Jenny Porter on the BBC's...
, whose real name is Clare Woodgate, was initially declined when she first auditioned for the film. Upon rejection, she dyed her hair red, changed her name and reinvented herself as a teenage girl from Liverpool with no acting experience and applied again. The second time she got the role. Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
was reportedly miffed when he found out her true age. According to Mike Newell
Mike Newell (director)
Michael Cormac "Mike" Newell is an English director and producer of motion pictures for the screen and for television. After the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, Newell became the third most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind Christopher Nolan...
, he "treated her very tactfully, presuming that she was sexually inexperienced and could get upset by the scene."
The film was shot mostly in Dublin. The playhouse in the film was actually the Olympia Theatre
Olympia Theatre, Dublin
The Olympia Theatre is a concert hall/theatre venue in Dublin, Ireland, located in Dame Street.-History:Built in 1879, it was originally called the "Star of Erin Music Hall". Two years later in 1881, it was renamed "Dan Lowrey's Music Hall" and was renamed again in 1889 to "Dan Lowrey's Palace of...
.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack album was released on June 20, 1995 by Silva Screen Records. In addition to the original film score composed by Richard HartleyRichard Hartley
Richard Hartley is a British composer.His work is extensive and varied, including musical arrangement for theatre and many scores for television and film. In the 1970s he began a long association with Richard O'Brien. Hartley was originally part of the four-piece band for the Rocky Horror Show. ...
, the Irish folk song "The Last Rose of Summer
The Last Rose of Summer
The Last Rose of Summer is a poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore, who was a friend of Byron and Shelley. Moore wrote it in 1805 while at Jenkinstown Park in County Kilkenny, Ireland...
" is used as O'Hara's theme music throughout the film.
Box office
The film did not perform well at the box office, earning only $593,350 domestically and $258,195 in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. However, Georgina Cates
Georgina Cates
Georgina Cates is an English actress of film and television.-Biography:Born Clare Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, she attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke into television acting when she was only sixteen years old, playing the role of the original Jenny Porter on the BBC's...
received a London Film Critics Circle Award nomination for Best Actress of the Year and Mike Newell
Mike Newell (director)
Michael Cormac "Mike" Newell is an English director and producer of motion pictures for the screen and for television. After the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, Newell became the third most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind Christopher Nolan...
was nominated for a Crystal Globe Award
Crystal Globe
Crystal Globe is the main award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, first given in the city of Karlovy Vary of the Czech Republic, in 1948.In the international competition of films, IFFKV presents the following awards:...
for Best Director at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....
.
Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews. Though Rickman and Grant were unanimously praised, many audiences were left cold by its bleak, subversive tone and episodic structure. Lisa Schwartzenbaum of Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
wrote that "Rickman . . . is the most interesting thing going in this unwieldy muddle . . . There's a creepy allure to O'Hara, and it is his energy that moves the story along to its unsettling surprise ending." Edward Guthmann of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "This isn't a sentimental slice of British eccentricity, or a gentle glance at amateur theatricals and the oddballs who inhabit them . . . Instead, it's a sour, unpleasant experience that gives us every reason not to become involved. Newell, who directed Four Weddings with such a light touch and such fondness, leaves the impression here that he doesn't like his characters and doesn't mind if we don't, either."
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, however, felt that it captured "Mr. Grant as the clever, versatile character actor he was then becoming, rather than the international dreamboat he is today . . . [the film] isn't overly concerned with making its stars look good. Mr. Grant wears a monocle, has nicotine-stained fingers and appears in one scene looking dissolute and vomit-stained . . . As it turns out, a public relations blackout is only the least of this admirable film's problems. Its Liverpool accents are thickly impenetrable. And Ms. Bainbridge's book is elliptical to begin with, which guarantees that some of its fine points will be lost in translation. Mr. Newell directs his actors beautifully, but the screenplay by Charles Wood echoes Ms. Bainbridge in letting important information fly by obliquely. So listen closely. This is a dark, eccentric film that both requires and rewards keen attention."
Similarly, Joel Pearce of DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict is a judicial themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. Current editor in chief is Michael Stailey, who also reviews for Rotten Tomatoes...
commented that "An Awfully Big Adventure is disappointing, but not because it's a bad movie . . . In fact, it's a good movie that's been the victim of extremely bad marketing . . . Hugh Grant is at his sleazy, sardonic best . . . Some elements of the film are too subtle, so it takes a while to figure out what's really going on."
Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
has said that he felt the film suffered comparisons to Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...
.