I watched this because I am big fan of Will Poulter, an extremely naturally gifted actor & he so he is here but struggles with the material he is given.
Poulter plays Jack, born of middle class Nottinghill parents who plan for him to take an internship with a friends law firm as soon as he is back from taking a gap year of travelling with his friend Tom. Jack meets Evelyn, a French girl visiting London, whom for reasons unknown strings Jack along even though she has an on/off boyfriend who can only be some sort of pimp / drug dealer though what he does is never clearly explained. Through meeting her he goes clubbing to secret hedonistic places where young posh kids go, who don't work, have threesomes and do drugs. It's all very pastel colours and warm tones. Jack has an interest in old school photography, befriends some sisters who seem to own a 'come and go as you please' mansion while their parents are away and meets an assortment of odd other characters. Some arguments are had and some friendships are tested and that's about it really. The script is almost entirely devoid of any real drama save for a couple of heated rows with the parents and his best friend. Coming of age dramas and films about first young loves can be engaging but sadly this film isn't in that category. It's only real saving grace is Poulter who plays the stumbling Jack with an appropriate level of blind confusion. Adequate casting in terms of the parents is provided by stalwart actors such as Pip Torrens and Geraldine Sommerville, but the rest of the cast find it hard to make their mark. The script lacked any real characterisation (Perhaps these kids are just that bland, and that was the point?) and I just really wasn't interested in the petty dilemmas of these spoilt rich kids. At the end of the films running time I felt I barely knew any of the characters any better than I did when the film had started apart from Jack, whose own journey seems to have taken him no where. Perhaps that was the point of the story, that they were all so vacuous that Jack was better off where he had started, than with meeting them at all. Be that as it may, it did make the film somewhat pointless.
It says much about a film where the most memorable moment is a scene with a guy who sits on the sofa and says nothing.
Poulter plays Jack, born of middle class Nottinghill parents who plan for him to take an internship with a friends law firm as soon as he is back from taking a gap year of travelling with his friend Tom. Jack meets Evelyn, a French girl visiting London, whom for reasons unknown strings Jack along even though she has an on/off boyfriend who can only be some sort of pimp / drug dealer though what he does is never clearly explained. Through meeting her he goes clubbing to secret hedonistic places where young posh kids go, who don't work, have threesomes and do drugs. It's all very pastel colours and warm tones. Jack has an interest in old school photography, befriends some sisters who seem to own a 'come and go as you please' mansion while their parents are away and meets an assortment of odd other characters. Some arguments are had and some friendships are tested and that's about it really. The script is almost entirely devoid of any real drama save for a couple of heated rows with the parents and his best friend. Coming of age dramas and films about first young loves can be engaging but sadly this film isn't in that category. It's only real saving grace is Poulter who plays the stumbling Jack with an appropriate level of blind confusion. Adequate casting in terms of the parents is provided by stalwart actors such as Pip Torrens and Geraldine Sommerville, but the rest of the cast find it hard to make their mark. The script lacked any real characterisation (Perhaps these kids are just that bland, and that was the point?) and I just really wasn't interested in the petty dilemmas of these spoilt rich kids. At the end of the films running time I felt I barely knew any of the characters any better than I did when the film had started apart from Jack, whose own journey seems to have taken him no where. Perhaps that was the point of the story, that they were all so vacuous that Jack was better off where he had started, than with meeting them at all. Be that as it may, it did make the film somewhat pointless.
It says much about a film where the most memorable moment is a scene with a guy who sits on the sofa and says nothing.