The American dream in reverse : a young Turk , confident of his experience of the world (America) comes back to his native land to be confronted to people who are not as naive as he thought.
He feels like a king and a king is not satisfied till he owns everything : a desirable huge mansion which could accomodate four or five families , the best school for his son , an ambition which knows no bounds , a de rigueur snobbery about culture -"he' s never set foot in a theater ",a desire to sever all links with his modest background :the contrast between the hero's manor and his mom' s humble house is striking and the son/mother scene is perhaps the strongest in the whole movie ("I invite you" " a mother has not to be invited ");this woman and the taxi driver are the only people who belong to the working class and their words ring truer than Rory's claptrap in his executives meetings.
An update of Clayton's "room at the top" (1959) in which Laurence Harvey was a go-getter ,a pusher ,who finally succeeded.
The conclusion is different here : Allison ,his wife ,soon discovers the cracks in the mirror ,the boy is bullied at school and the daughter throws a rave-up when her parents are away.They won't live happily ever after in their nest .
He feels like a king and a king is not satisfied till he owns everything : a desirable huge mansion which could accomodate four or five families , the best school for his son , an ambition which knows no bounds , a de rigueur snobbery about culture -"he' s never set foot in a theater ",a desire to sever all links with his modest background :the contrast between the hero's manor and his mom' s humble house is striking and the son/mother scene is perhaps the strongest in the whole movie ("I invite you" " a mother has not to be invited ");this woman and the taxi driver are the only people who belong to the working class and their words ring truer than Rory's claptrap in his executives meetings.
An update of Clayton's "room at the top" (1959) in which Laurence Harvey was a go-getter ,a pusher ,who finally succeeded.
The conclusion is different here : Allison ,his wife ,soon discovers the cracks in the mirror ,the boy is bullied at school and the daughter throws a rave-up when her parents are away.They won't live happily ever after in their nest .