Experience Preferred... But Not Essential

The character of Annie is the central point of the story. Played by Elizabeth Edmonds, she is awkward, confident, shy, and easy to identify with. Edmonds, who you've probably never seen before, shows off a beautiful humanity in her character. And that is true for the rest of the cast. Each of them are given people with real personalities and eccentricities. Nobody is flat or dull to watch.

This film is directed by Peter Duffell, a man who made little else of note during his career (unless you count "The House That Dripped Blood", and I don't). The style here is somewhat more the territory of producer David Puttnam, who worked on several such films. This is almost the prototype for Bill Forsyth's "Local Hero", which Puttnam produced the following year.

I can't say what it is about "Experience Preferred... But Not Essential". It could be how it brilliantly pulls off an overlong title. Haha. Or the fact that it's so pure and down-to-earth. It's little-seen, that much is sure. So anyone coming across it is certainly free to consider it a personal discovery. Being only available on VHS makes that an ever-rarer possibility. I found it at a tiny store that carries this sort of thing. It's a fun, cheerful, mostly light film. You should enjoy it. I know I did.

If the characters in your ensemble cast are so annoying that you'd walk out of a bar giving away free drinks to escape them, you have a problem.

If the boyfriend of the main heroine is a sex-obsessed stalker who tries jumping into bed with her at every opportunity and this is presented as 'charming' behavior, you have a problem.

If the best thing about your film is an ongoing joke about a naked sleepwalker and the soundtrack full of 60's hits, then you have a problem.

Basically, this whole film shouldn't be rated PG for Parental Guidance, it should just be P for 'problem'. And plodding. And prosaic. And pedestrian. And... 4/10.

No matter how many times I watch this delightful coming-of-age movie, I discover something new about the characters. They almost seem to grow with you over the years, so familiar do they become to you, like old friends. These (well, most of these) are people I would want to know, women I would love to have as friends for life -- I DO have friends for life like them. I find myself wondering what their lives would be like now, 40+ years after the film is supposed to take place. That, to me, is the mark of a film extraordinarily well conceived, written, directed and acted. An absolutely dear, touching, funny film, very worth hunting down.

Annie is a student in the sixties. She has temporarily departed from academia to take a summer job at a seaside hotel in Wales. This movie follows Annie's relationships and interaction with the other members of staff and the outcome of their various dilemmas. That might sound a little heavy bearing in mind that this is a comedy, but it is witty, amusing and totally delightful.

The staff at the hotel are made up of a chatty Scots chef, a brash waitress and her abusive Elvis lookalike boyfriend, the roommate who closes her ears to the noises taking place right next to her, another roommate that closes her eyes to the nightly view of the sleepwalking nudist, the receptionist who is on extremely good terms with the hotel manager and the waitress who ran away from home at the age of 36.

Each of these characters and their life experiences make such an impression on the blank page that is Annie that when she leaves she is a different girl. A brief but enchanting gem of a movie.

"Experience Preferred but not Essential" was, for me, one of those beautifully done esoteric films that deserves to be seen more than once to fully appreciate it humor, insights and writing.

It is akin to another such movie, "She'll be Wearing Pink Pajamas." I really appreciate writers, directors and actors who can delve into a humorous story, dig out the subtle humor and make it work on the big screen.

These are two films I'd really like to get a hold of and to watch again and again. Both films contain the kind of encouragement that one can find one's identity and not be lost in a "majority mentality."