Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

lasttimeisaw Adapted from Julian Mitchell's eponymous play, ANOTHER COUNTRY is a biographic recount of Guy Burgess' repressive campus days, which foreshadows his later defection to Russia as a spy. Set in 1930s, in an all-male British public school, Guy (Everett) is a homosexual student with a casual and elegant bearing, his best friend is a heterosexual communist Tommy (Firth), both spurn the stiff hierarchy system of the school, from junior to prefect until the gods, the oppressive atmosphere is stifling. Triggered by a newly suicide accident owing to homosexual action, the management tier restricts any activity likewise. Guy finds himself more and more befuddled about his future and a cute peer James (Elwes) has come into his life, whom he is instantly besotted with. But with their disruptive nature, both Guy and Tommy have to pay their prices and end up as expendable pawns in the school's power struggle. The film runs within a neat 90-minutes, starts with a writer interviews Guy in Moscow in 1980s (in my opinion it would be much better to hire a real aging actor for the role instead of using the horrible make-up on Everett), immediately the film flashbacks to Guy's youth, carefully limns how the formulaic and orthodox school life slowly erodes his belief and viewpoint of the world, but not his sexuality. Both Rupert Everett and Colin Firth are in their early twenties and their untainted countenances could only arouse a nostalgic reminiscence which luckily doesn't overshadow their excellent performances here, especially Firth, an idealistic socialist, a devoted friend, the two-hander between him and Everett gains lots of favorable impressions for the film while Elwes and Everett's touchy-feely moments looks a shade phony and effete. Nevertheless, I give an encourage 8 out 10 for this film, director Marek Kanievska's debut, it has a killing score, mellifluous and nerve-soothing, the script is potent and caustic in supporting the film's narrative arc with a great ensemble and my sweet spot is the period backdrop, whose canon and moral leverage are stinkingly degenerate, but all its trappings are shining with their own allure to generations after and this film is a lucky beneficiary as well.

sandover As far as I can tell, this sums up the lucid moral of the film, for to brush what the film actually contemplates is a risky business. Perhaps it achieves a discreet, demonstrative style in the scenes with the juniors, who may actually be the true Marxist, lilliputian counterweight to the ideological tirades, a style which is best allied with the performances' muted quality. As another reviewer shrewdly noted, one wonders if Colin Firth was ever a boy, that is how haunting a note he strikes, and with a sneer in his voice that maybe outshines even Michael Cane's, given his age. Rupert Everett turns a cautious, elegant performance; have we actually come to appreciate his distinct comic, perhaps signature Wildean, timing (well, better serving him in dramatic films)? But what will stay with me is the first amorous meeting between Benett and Harcourt, the first lines spoken and framed ideally by Elwes' flushed face and the - already enamored - slight twitches that betray him and convey a feeling of unspeakable beauty, a feeling of first -.Excuse me for being rhapsodic, excuse Cary Elwes for afterwards portraying an inexperienced, somewhat floppy youth (yet with a charismatic aura due perhaps to the fact that this is his first role, and with a platonic passivity that retains all the ambiguities of this kind of love). Forget the confusing matter of the film's ideological, biographical, theatrical or what stitches, see how it frames first love (we only come to see a handshake - has a handshake ever been so evocative? - and an embrace, not a kiss, nor a caress) in the premises and remember how wisely the director makes James Harcourt exit: he does not reciprocate Everett's distant salutation.If the film achieves an intuition, I think it is this grim one.Along with stating that thick makeup of Victorian proportions cannot convince the youthful body underneath to be old enough, or irrelevant enough in the U.S.S.R..

pekinman When 'Another Country' first appeared in the '80s I watched it over and over, loving the settings and the acting. Now, 20 years on, I have just acquired the DVD and have had to alter my original enthusiasm to a milder level of enjoyment... and an added irritation and impatience with the subject matter.What set my teeth against this film most recently was listening to the adolescent and empty-headed commentary by Rupert Everett as interviewed in one of the special features on the DVD release. Looking at his feet as he speaks he drawls out something to the effect that life in England in the 30s was horrible. Really? I thought. I suppose life anywhere at anytime is always horrible for someone but most people seem to rub along quite nicely, thank you very much. That train of thought got me onto the nature of "rebels" and "causes" and so on. Yes, for homosexuals, England was a harsh place to be with its brutal laws against such private behavior, something that is always a danger when huge governmental systems get "law-crazy". But most homosexual men managed to have a good time and hold down decent careers (a conclusion reached as a result of reading a great deal of historical biography from English men and women of the 20th century, both gay and straight). Of course, those people who managed to work within the system at the time would nowadays be dismissed as "cop-outs" by those in the gay community who willfully get in peoples' faces about their personal sexual preference. But not all gay people feel the need to air their personal behavior in public. But to return to the film; I concluded that Guy Bennett (Everett) was simply a spoiled, over-indulged prat (that's English for brat) who would not curb his foot-in-mouth problem with discretion and wisely keep his personal sexual preferences to himself, as did most other people in that situation at the time.The English "public" school system was indeed a tough experience, as I gather, and prone to a militaristic and dutiful code of behavior that we today would find totally unacceptable, for better or worse... that is arguable. But people at that time, at least in the ruling classes, felt it their duty to put country ahead of themselves and knuckled under to the system. We don't understand that now, being a more self-indulgent and immature society.'Another Country' is the story of rebels without a cause, or at least, rebels with a questionable cause based on questionable motivations. That is where I have lost patience with this once highly revered film. It is still beautiful to watch, however. The cinematography is superb, as is the music and the acting. As a period piece showing the inner workings of a place like Eton College it is fascinating. The script, such as it is, is excellent. The most involving aspect of the story is the relationship between Guy and James Harcourt (Cary Elwes) who become lovers, though this part of the whole story is touched on lightly and never becomes salacious or "over-egged" as gay themed films are now.I still like this film well enough but it has not come down the twenty years since its creation with much grace or dignity. Colin Firth's character (Tommy Judd) was always tiresome with his endless communist tirades and pontificating, but over time, ironically, his performance holds up the best. Other facets of his character, once past his worship of Stalin and Lenin, such as his un- swerving adherence to an idealistic vision, have come into focus more clearly and keeps the film from becoming just a mushy love story tagging around behind the flimsy excuse for Guy Bennett's treason against the country that gave him everything he had. Still worth a look-see but not the "masterpiece" I once thought it was.

hugh1971 This film is both visually and dramatically impressive. From the outset, we are treated to lavish cinematography of Eton College and its grounds and the surrounding countryside. This is contrasted with the drab scenes of Moscow from where Guy Bennet recounts his story. Everything is bathed in a golden glow, backed up by the sound of boyish voices singing hymns (the title itself comes from popular school hymn 'I vow to Thee my Country'; which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997).This contrasts starkly with the brutality of the school's disciplinary system, where one boy is so ashamed of being caught in a homosexual act that he hangs himself in the school chapel. Those who question the school's code become outcasts, such as Bennet and Judd, unless they are 'useful' in some way - ie when Judd is needed to prevent an unpopular boy becoming head of house.One important fact I noticed is that you hardly ever see a master in the school, and you never see the boys in lessons: this shows Eton not as merely a school, but as a microcosm of society with its own specific hierarchy.There is interesting character development: Bennett, initially a philanderer who takes nothing seriously, eventually realises that he is a confirmed homosexual and begins to understand Judd's vision of a perfect society possible through communism ('not heaven on earth, but earth on earth - a just earth')Similarly Judd realises that sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice one's principles for the greater good.There is a lot about this film that is hackneyed - the bullying, sadistic prefects, the angelic boys with floppy fringes singing chapel anthems, the stock rebellious phrases etc, (and I won't even mention Guy Bennet's ludicrous old-man makeup)but overall it is a beautiful piece of cinematography with some good acting from the young Mr Everett and Mr Firth.