I'm a big fan of Doctor Who. So the fact that not one but two Doctors (one canonical, one not) got their start in a cult British movie from the 1980s obviously makes me curious about it. Withnail and I is a 1987 dark comedy written and directed by Bruce Robinson that’s become something of a sensation in Britain in the decades since its release. It was the career-making movie for Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann and has that same grungy allure of other British youth culture movies like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting (though pre-dating them by almost a decade). It’s also ever so slightly dated, but still quotable and likeable enough for its plot, attitude, and performances.
Withnail (Grant) and I (McGann) are a pair of down-on-their-luck actors living in squalid conditions in 1969 London passing their time looking for work and wallowing in the state of their careers. Withnail, an over-dramatic eccentric, arranges for the two to take a holiday at his Uncle Monty’s (Richard Griffiths) cottage in Cumbria. The film then follows their unusual and downright farcical experience there.
Withnail and I is very light on plot, but there’s a charm to how basic it is. It could be any episode of a standard sitcom -in fact the weekend getaway to a cottage trope has been done plenty in shows like Three’s Company and Frasier. And just like those examples this is a film that runs heavily on farce and misunderstanding, though treated with a little more sincerity. It’s a farce through the lens of an art film. There’s a gag with a bull, an abrasive neighbour, a false pretence, and a close sexual encounter, but also deep shots, a dim atmosphere, and a narration device by an unnamed protagonist (for simplicity’s sake I’m going to identify him as Marwood, which is a name appearing on a telegram in the film). This really reflects the character of Withnail well, who’s both articulately posh and slovenly crass. “I’m a trained actor reduced to the state of a bum!” he exclaims in frustration. Their poor Camden Town flat (not far in geography or state from the fictitious Bob Crachit’s home) is cluttered, filthy, and dilapidated, their car much the same, yet Withnail makes an attempt to look half-decent in his shabby coat and tie. A man from a rich but estranged upbringing, who fancies himself a classical dignified actor, he’s very much living in his own world, looking to things like the country holiday as a solution to his problems rather than the distraction it is. For this reason too, he’s prone to exaggerate his prospects.
Richard E. Grant is stupendous as this drunken idiot-savant of a lead. Not only is he consistently funny and absurd, but there’s a believability to even his most outlandish lines and actions. “We want the finest wines available to humanity,” he orders to a cafe proprietor in Penrith. “We want them here and we want them now.” Every minutia of life is a performance to Withnail and Grant is exceedingly good at conveying that. And considering he’s played a number of similar over-the-top characters since (his Seward of Francis Ford Coppolla’s Dracula being perhaps the most notable example), it’s unsurprising the direction his career took. Paul McGann is essentially the straight man of their double act, but his performance is quietly engaging too. He’s obviously the character you relate with most, having common sense in the face of some of Withnail’s most questionable antics (drinking a can of lighter fluid for instance), but he’s also got enough of a neurotic personality himself to stand out. He’s perhaps at his best in the pub scene early on, with his irrational fear of a burly man calling him “ponce”, played by a scene-stealing Daragh O’Malley. Withnail and I often feels like a movie-length episode of a sitcom, and that’s also noteworthy in the cast of supporting characters including a prescient drug dealer Danny played by Ralph Brown and the gruff country poacher Jake played by Michael Elphick.
And then of course there’s Uncle Monty, owner and surprise guest at the country cabin, played by Richard Griffiths; and though Griffiths isn’t giving a poor performance, it’s his character at the heart of what’s wrong with the movie. Uncle Monty is openly gay, stereotypically so, and one of the key plot points later in the film is his belief that Marwood is gay as well, a misunderstanding which leads to him making very inappropriate advances towards the younger man. Robinson based the character on famed Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, whom he worked for when playing Benvolio in 1968’s Romeo and Juliet. He also alleges that Zeffirelli sexually harassed him in much the same way as Monty is seen to do with Marwood. This personal experience of Robinson’s seems to be the reason why, in contrast to similar misunderstandings in television at the time, on shows like Three’s Company and Are You Being Served?, the rapey overtones of Monty’s advances are played seriously, and with genuine fear on Marwood’s part. It results in Monty being a rather unlikeable character, despite being a sentimentalist -he only ceases his assault after Marwood lies about him and Withnail being lovers. It’s uncomfortable to watch, and especially with Monty already being quite a stereotype, it comes off as slightly homophobic. I’m sure that wasn’t Robinson’s intention -he may have just wanted to raise awareness of Zeffirelli’s creepiness; and he does make a point that this isn’t Monty reading something in Marwood -Withnail directly convinced his uncle Marwood was closeted but curious. However it still has unfortunate connotations.
Withnail and I is a very funny movie, clever and irreverent, but there’s a tragic element to it as well. Withnail’s personality is not entirely treated as a joke. Marwood is implicitly the better actor, but Withnail doesn’t have any discipline to work towards improving that fact for himself. He sulks and moans. He’s managed to get work before -reference is made to a cigar commercial and an agent who has since disappeared. Withnail also believes himself above certain types of jobs, turning down understudy work at perhaps a debilitating cost; he just wallows in the faint hope that a great acting job falls into his lap, something in television hopefully. Marwood gets the lead in a play in Manchester at the end of the movie while Withnail gets an eviction notice. But their parting was inevitable even before this. Withnail and Marwood have a likeable friendship, but while they both display laddish behaviour, you can’t escape the bad influence Withnail is. It’s perhaps at its most embarrassing when after being pulled over for drink driving, Withnail tries pulling a juvenile trick he learned from Danny to fake a urine sample. Regardless, the farewell between Withnail and “I” is still sad in its way. It did feel like a genuine friendship, and as Marwood leaves for a more successful future while Withnail seems doomed to despair, you really pity the guy. As he pathetically and dramatically recites Hamlet’s “what a piece of work is a man” speech with wine bottle ever in hand, it’s all the more an indictment on irresponsible, overly entitled youth. We don’t know if Withnail will find another flat, or how long it will take him to really put in the effort to win an acting job and thus improve his life, if he ever will. Perhaps Robinson is commenting too on the pursuit of acting as a career, how those who are the most passionate can still be left behind.
Withnail may not ever become the star he wanted, but Richard E. Grant did, and Withnail and I definitely became a cult hit for a reason. Apart from its sense of humour, from farce to slapstick to fish-out-of-water confusion (like their attempt to cook a chicken) and an array of terrific lines (“you bloody fool, you should never mix your drinks!”), it boasts memorable characters, some genuine pathos, and a great dirty 60’s atmosphere -according to McGann new audiences sometimes assume it was made two decades earlier. Uncle Monty’s whole subplot is really the only awkward spot on an otherwise marvellous bleak comedy. Clever, funny, honest, and oddly stimulating, Withnail and I is a must-see movie for actors and British film fans alike.
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