Look Back in Anger

Released in 1989, this filmed version of English playwright John Osborne's Look Back in Anger stars two very fine actors, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson (a 1958 film version featured Richard Burton in the Branagh role), in what has to be one of the bleakest two hours ever committed to celluloid. Branagh portrays Jimmy Porter, the quintessential angry young man (indeed, Osborne helped create that particular stereotype). Educated and articulate, Jimmy hates his dead-end job and the rest of his life as well, and he spends the better part of the film taking it out on those around him: wife Allison (Thompson), her friend Helena (Siobhan Redmond), and his pal and business partner Cliff (Gerard Horan). Jimmy is a self-pitying, repellent bully, ceaselessly cruel, sarcastic (“I've got an idea. Let's pretend that we're human beings, and that we're actually alive!”), and venomous, and—except for Helena—the others meekly submit to his badgering. And that's about it, really. Yes, there are occasional nuances: Helena proves to be somewhat more than she seems, Allison has a troubled pregnancy, and now and then Jimmy even shuts up. Osborne no doubt intended the atmosphere to be claustrophobic (the entire play takes place in a one-room, post-WWII flat), but film is a rather different medium than the stage, and despite the best efforts of director Judi Dench (herself a superb actor), Look Back in Anger is tediously static. DVD extras include an interview with Branagh. Not a necessary purchase. (S. Graham)