Three Men in a Boat

This is a likable piece of fluff where the title really does say it all. In general, it was simply a pleasant film to watch, with few (if any) slow spots, and the occasional scene that was hilarious. It features some good talent, and at barely an hour, it is most certainly worth your time.

Free television adaptation of the work of the same name by Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) written by Tom Stoppard, directed by Stephen Frears and featuring Tim Curry, Michael Palin and Stephen Moore, in the main roles.

A frankly interesting curiosity, not only because it reports on a boat trip on the Thames, from Kingston to Oxford, by three young men, at the end of the 19th century, but also because it features several notable talents, in front of and behind the camera, destined for fame and success.

Palin was already a star in 1975, due to his participation in the Monthy Python series, and Curry debuted, that same year, his most famous role, that of Transvestite, Transylvanian Transsexual, in the cult musical comedy, Rocky Horror Picture Show. Moore would have a long career in film and television, notably in the series Rock Follies or the war classic, A Bridge Too Far. Frears would be one of the most important British directors of his generation, nominated twice for an Oscar for best director (The Grifters and The Queen), winning an Emmy and three BAFTAs. Finally, screenwriter Tom Stoppard also had a hugely successful career, winning an Oscar in 1999 (The Passion of Shakespeare) and nominated for another (Brazil, by Terry Gilliam, another former Python).

With so many stars, this obscure work, made in 1975 for the BBC, gains increased and deserved interest.

The ironic and critical tone of British imperial high society, so Monty Python-like, dominates. But there is also the flavor of travel chronicles, of which Palin would be an excellent maker, through the series he made for the BBC, in which he traveled almost the entire world.

It is not a humor film, in the strictest sense, it is an ironic, critical, fun and elegant chronicle of an era, a culture, a civilization, decadent but brilliant.

A pleasant surprise.

Tim Curry was the reason I wanted to see this, and he's hilarious in it, particularly in one scene where he reads a book about diseases and is convinced he has them all. The piece has a very droll quality and a light touch (courtesy of Frears' excellent direction). Well worth seeking out.

This has promising ingredients: adaptation by brilliant intellectual British word-smith Stoppard, undoubted star Tim Curry, Monty Python funny-man and a perfect period look.

The book itself is a both a comedy and gentle satire about the lives of the comfortably off middle-class Edwardian Southern English written around the same time as Wind in the Willows and conjuring up that same aura of innocent pleasures on the river. It was a satire rooted in a specific golden period shortly before WW1 ended innocence for ever.

Three friends, middle-class and comfortably off, who lead comfortable lives yet somehow come to convince themselves that they are ill, overworked and in desperate need of a relaxing holiday. Fatefully they choose a particularly complicated holiday in a camping skiff on The Thames. The preparation for this they, in their different ways, pursue with the same tail-wagging enthusiasm and general lack of forethought as their pet dog companion Montmorency. What results is a mixture of mischance leading inevitability to both comic disaster and moments of rare good fortune. It was for its readers a believable but comic version of the real minor misfortunes which could befall three male companions on such a camping holiday. In tone it resembles another Edwardian comic classic book "Diary of a Nobody" by George and Weedon Grosmith.

This production, though it shows consistent evidence of Stoppart's cleverness, just doesn't gel, is rather monotonous in tone and only entertains when it reproduces scenes from the book. This lack of clarity of concept is reflected in the disastrous casting. A mugging Michael Palin is uncomfortably placed between two talented and subtle actors. Tim Curry's character is clever - too clever - and morbidly droll indeed it is rather as if Stoppard himself had joined the trio - and having a comic-deadening effect on the proceedings.

The three characters in the book were neither idiots nor particularly smart. They were simply a bit spoilt, a bit naive and rather bored by work and their lives. The story is about how with an excess of enthusiasm - and deficit of thought - adults can make themselves appear ridiculous; ridiculous comic things can occur - in short, everything necessary to make a fondly long-remembered holiday.

And this was very much the character of the 1955 film version with the late and great David Tomlinson, Lawrence Harvey and Jimmy Edwards. Broad, never witty but entertaining I'd recommend the film version not this one. For work of comic genius the classic French film comedy "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" is both hilarious and human.

Works of comic genius are first and foremost comic - the genius is subtle and hidden. David Tomlinson invariably played a bit of a buffoon but hidden behind this was a self-effacing genius. Here as in his plays Stoppard makes his cleverness the talking point, he wears his art on his sleeve. But like the three men in the boat, the audience had instead set out in search of simple relaxation and fun.

I don't think it is quite as good as the 1956 David Tomblinson film, but what we have here is a charming adaptation of a classic book, that is worthy of a little more praise. True, some(emphasis on the some)of the camera-work is a little flat, but considering that it was made in the 70s, and made for TV, it can be forgiven, and it is rather short. The adaptation does look beautiful, with lovely English scenery and sumptuous costumes. The script is lovely, very lyrical and poetic with phrases such as "Dainty dress of spring", and is very true to the book, which is better admittedly. There is also some humour, especially with the chemistry between the two men and the scene in the Hampton Court Maze. Another mention is when Jerome is reading a book on diseases and convinces himself he has them all. I particularly liked Jerome's exclamation "Why does Harris look like a martyr goose?" It was really nice to see the wonderful Tim Curry in an early role, and I thought he was great as Jerome, and this is an example of a film where Curry shouldn't be dismissed as over the top person as he is made out to be. He is given top notch support by Michael Palin as Harris and Stephen Moore as George. All in all, a relaxing and perfectly watchable adaptation, with a 9/10 from me. Bethany Cox.