I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is insanely perverse of New Line Home entertainment to tout this downbeat film as a 'warm-hearted comedy'.I didn't know what to expect from Mike Newell. He's made films of all genres and has recently made the Hollywood set with The Prince of Persia, though it was a bit of a flop, but still...I liked his Enchanted April a great deal and Four Weddings and a Funeral had its charms and was very mainstream. So I had hopes of liking An Awfully Big Adventure as well. I was also curious to see the only film adaptation of a Beryl Bainbridge novel. I wasn't prepared for An Awfully Big Adventure being so strange and just plain weird. This film boasts a splendid cast of actors, many of them long past their primes but then so are most of the characters in the movie. The technical credits, music, cinematography and script are fine, the acting, as stated, is superb, but this is one of the most depressing films I've ever seen. The story is neurotic, childish and yet strangely touching, chock-full of Catholic suffering and self-flagellation. The characters are drawn beautifully and the overall point of the story is well-taken, the devastation of war on human psyches and all that, but the ultimate point of the story, incest, is a shocking and seemingly irrelevant side swipe that threw this viewer's mind off center. I waited for something deep to be revealed but the film simply stops with the sudden incest angle. It's your basic sordid tale of a troupe of has-beens on their last legs in a Liverpool theatre. The young girl, Stella, is extremely odd and doesn't seem to possess a shred of innocence that I think we were supposed to think she possessed. She's naïve to be sure and inexperienced but innocent, no. And fantasy life borders on the psychotic. I have no doubt she ended up either a nun or a whore.Georgina Cates gives a pretty great performance though she's very difficult to understand more often than not and I have been watching British/Irish/Scotch films for years. She trips over many of her lines in a self-conscious way, part of her character perhaps. Alan Rickman is not quite as mush-mouthed as he usually is but I still don't understand the wild passion of his deathless legions of fans. I find him very boring most of the time, but he can pull out some moments of high drama when called upon to do so.Hugh Grant actually does the most convincing job of acting. His old pansy stage director with his nicotine-yellowed fingers made me squirm; a simply awful person.There are two splendid performances by Nicola Pagett and Carol Drinkwater as the two fading beauties in the troupe of actors; the former a love-sick tragedienne and the latter a hopeless, sex-starved drunk. And Peter Firth returns to the big screen in a quietly humorous and yet pathetic stage manager, Bunny. In his subtle way Firth steals the show whenever he's on screen.No, this is not a warm-hearted comedy. It is a nasty tale with a heart of latex.Having said all that it's worth seeing as an oddity. I could not give it less than 5 stars because the over-all quality of the production and performances is so very high. It's just Beryl Bainbridge's dark, sad story that leaves a pall. Maybe, in time, I will come to view this as some kind of minor masterpiece, but I doubt it.A very odd viewing experience. No wonder it flopped in America. This kind of socialist, down-trodden banging-on doesn't even get off the ground in a free society.

This is one of the better films about theatre and what it does to some people. It resembles "The Dresser" in atmosphere to a certain extent, and in the portrayal of many of its characters. Both are set in Northern England during the 1940s, in rather faded theatres. Characters from one film could quite easily have inhabited the other. Here however we follow primarily the journey of a stage-struck young girl as she enters the strange and often unpredictable world of a repertory theatre -her own awfully big adventure. Note the irony of the title. Secret desires and yearnings linger under the surface, bitchiness and petty jealousy escort humour and the spirit of "the show going on" no matter what. It is however quite a dark film, and bravely allows us to get to know characters who are unsympathetic but not altogether unlikable. Alan Rickman underplays beautifully as always, and a restrained Hugh Grant demonstrates his considerable skill as a character actor. This is one of the most interesting of all his screen performances. Georgina Cates gives a stunning performance of the innocent (but not THAT innocent) girl drawn into the world of the theatre, and the supporting cast are faultless. Prunella Scales, Carol Drinkwater and Peter Firth deserve special salutes however. Lots to like here, but it is not at all a feel good movie. Nor is it meant to be.

This has long been one of my favourite films, not least because of its unusual storyline. It gives us a window into the depressing life of the provinces in post World War II England, and also into the life of actors working in the British Repertory system - the youthful enthusiasm of the youngsters, and the frustrations and petty jealousies of the older troupers, long past their prime, if they ever had one.Georgina Cates is superb as the determined Stella, always playing a part whether on-stage or off. She's naive, but ready to do whatever it's going to take to get her foot in the door of the theatrical world. There's a ruthless quality underneath the wide-eyed innocent - she will probably never know that her first lover was actually her father, but if she ever learned the truth, she would probably milk it for all she could.Hugh Grant is quite repulsive as the predatory Meredith, giving us a rare view of him before he was discovered as the quintessential British sex symbol. It's a fine performance, and he gives much more than he does in most of his later roles where he is required to do little more than be charming, amusing, and sexy.And there's Alan Rickman, strong and commanding as always. A shame that he only comes in half-way through, but well worth the wait. His love scenes with Stella were tender and sad - the older man trying to recapture the lost love of his youth, and coming far closer than he realised. The scene when he learned just what he'd done was perfectly played - tragic without ever falling over into melodrama. And as an aside, what a brilliant Captain Hook he'd have made!There was generally good work from the supporting cast, particularly from Prunella Scales as the cynical but not unkind theatre manager, and the wonderful Alun Armstrong as Stella's uncle Vernon. A man of simple philosophy, but not as dense as people like Meredith might think. It's not beyond possibility that his character would have eventually arrived at the truth by himself. He'd be shocked, but I think not surprised, and would take it on board as one of life's strange ironies, without ever quite understanding just how it tore P.L. apart.Some people have found the incest to be distasteful and are put off the film because of it, but it was a tragedy of Greek proportions, a twist of fate for which nobody was responsible, and the protagonists were more to be pitied than reviled. It was handled superbly well, and at the end I felt only sadness for P.L. O'Hara. Stella would survive and go on, no matter what; she would need no-one to weep for her.

Well, this movie has definitely changed my views on Alan Rickman. He just blew my mind with his passionate performance...there isn't another to explain it.Now the plot was very complex so you did need to see it more than once to get the gist of every little twist. I'll tell you there are allot of twists in this movie. But thats what makes it a must see.I recommend this movie to anyone thats in need of a good slap in the face. I know that I sure did.