denny winstone

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There's something sadly tedious and predictable about watching characters getting drunk and drugged up, when there's no good dramatic reason for it. In the familar refrain 'It's not big or clever', but the film really suggests it might be, when most of us know the consequences are invariably sad and serious. And there's far too much of it here, even an unwitting glamorisation. This is the fundamental flaw of the film from which it never really recovers. For most of us there needs to be greater dramatic purpose, or greater humour - as found in, say, the inbetweeners or the much compared Withnail and I (but in the latter there was so much more originality, comic timing, and eccentricity). The film starts laboriously, trying too hard to set the scene of young women having fun. As it slowly progresses other themes could have been explored more, like Laura's family, to give the film more light and dark, and throw light on these women's apparant one dimensional world (the only laugh raised in this viewer's screening was when Laura placed her sister's baby on the floor - there was SO much more comedy waiting to have been developed in comparing the sisters' lives). By the end, the viewer is desperate for sunlight and a walk in the park. The primary themes of the women's relationship and the question 'aged 30, is it time to grow up out of a drinking culture student mindset ?' is not enough to sustain the film. If the central characters were more likeable then that might have helped, and there is little attempt to get deeper and beneath their superficial lives. And how do they finance this indulgent lifestyle, and hold down jobs!? - hardly likely to endear them to the viewer. It's a pity, because there are some good ideas and good scenes. And it does involve us to some degree, especially Laura's relationship with her classical musician boyfriend. And Holliday Grainger keeps us involved with her dynamic believable acting. The problem is with the limited story and script - too repetitive and self indulgent, needing more range and breadth, and having the ring of someone simply writing there own self-absorbed biography. Too much of the supposed humour just doesn't work...at all. If it had gone deeper, then it could have become a film more akin to a gem like Woody Allen's Hannah and her sisters - a wasted opportunity. The themes of frustrated writers, pseudy arty gatherings, indulgent parties needed greater narrative and humour to find a wider audience....though it seemed to land well with those in this kind of world..like..erm.. film critics...(ouch). 2/5.