100
Time Out by Tom Huddleston
It’s Robinson’s mastery of tone that makes Withnail endure
Withnail & I
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- United Kingdom
- 1987
- · 108m
Director
Bruce Robinson
Cast
Richard E. Grant,
Paul McGann,
Richard Griffiths,
Michael Elphick,
Ralph Brown,
Eddie Tagoe
Genre
Comedy,
Drama
This darkly comic cult classic follows two unemployed actors -- Withnail, a sardonic alcoholic, and his anxious sidekick "I" -- who live unhappily in London in 1969. When they travel to the country cottage of Withnail's uncle, they find their vacation is far from the pleasant rest they had hoped for.
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What are critics saying?
100
Time Out
Withnail only gets better with time. Yes, it’s funny, but it’s also tender and sad too, from the arresting sound of Procul Harum’s ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ in the opening scene to the final, rainy farewell between Withnail (Richard E Grant) and his unnamed friend (revealed as ‘Marwood’ in the screenplay and played by Paul McGann) in the last scene in Regent’s Park.
100
BBC
Withnail & I has an air of authenticity only reality could give, and Robinson could only tell MacKerrell's story once. There could never be another Withnail.
100
The Telegraph
Grant's delivery of mordant mutterings is superb. The lines, from Bruce Robinson's semi-autobiographical script, are an oddball joy and mostly involve drink and the inevitable hangover.
100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Conveys the experience of being drunk so well that the only way I could improve upon it would be to stand behind you and hammer your head with two-pound bags of frozen peas.
100
Empire by William Thomas
Fans can mouth the words of Grant's big speeches along with him, relishing every viperish turn of phrase...this is and always will be a perfect dark comedy and a student staple.
100
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It had a miraculously literate script whose every line deservedly became a quotable classic and the film boasts a once-in-a-lifetime combination of perfect performances from Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant as the loafing actors heading for a terrible bucolic weekend, Ralph Brown as drug-dealing Danny and Richard Griffiths as predatory Uncle Monty.
88
TV Guide Magazine
A hilarious black comedy and already something of a cult favorite.
80
CineVue by Joe Walsh
A garishly macabre vision of a Britain exiting the war years and trying to come of age, it presents a time when society was ridding itself of the shackles of its Best-Of-British conventions, and forging a new path. Sadly though, with any coming of age tale there are those who are unable to grow at the same rate. Withnail is one of those, too happy to take all the pleasures, and never wake up to reality.
80
The Guardian by Xan Brooks
This is a ramshackle, exuberant affair, peppered with larger-than-life inhabitants, ludicrous scenes and quotable dialogue that have long since grown worn from frequent use.
80
Variety
Withnail & I is about the end of an era. Set in 1969 England, it portrays the last throes of a friendship mirroring the seedy demise of the hippie period, delivering some comic gems along the way.
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