| Anchor Bay Entertainment | Release Date: June 19, 1987 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
19
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Robinson's curlicued dialogue and the excellent performances make for rich entertainment; the fusion of writing and acting is particularly fine in the case of the drunken, self-consciously eccentric Withnail, whose many great lines are perfectly delivered by Richard E Grant.
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.
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For all the laughter it generates in its confrontations between city and country folk and their ways, Withnail and I has a decidedly dark and subtle undertow. One hilarious incident after another may keep the semiautobiographical Withnail and I perking along, but it is at the same time a ‘60s joy ride about to tailspin into the sobering ‘70s.
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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.
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It's difficult to see, too, what exactly all of this has to do with the
twilight of the '60s. With his frequent sentimental allusions to the end of an
era, Robinson seems to be grasping for a profundity that his anecdotal
reminiscences don't merit or really need. Marwood, the film implies, will
leave this life behind and go on to great things, while Withnail will be mired
in it forever, a forgotten Falstaff to Marwood's striding Prince Hal. Self-
dramatization is one thing; self-Shakespearization is something else. [10 July 1987, p.C]
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The acting is strong, especially from the raging Grant and the comically wistful Griffiths. Still, Withnail and I doesn't come off as an affectionate contemplation of the director's down-and-out days. [25 Sept 1987, p.5]
Withnail and I is one of those pictures that manages to be consistently amusing and grating at the same time. It stirs some good memories while pointing to the aimlessness of an era. [2 Oct 1987, p.5D]
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