The Rachel Papers

Infobox_Film
name = The Rachel Papers


writer = Damian Harris
starring = Dexter Fletcher
Ione Skye
Jonathan Pryce
Bill Paterson
James Spader
Jared Harris
Claire Skinner
director = Damian Harris
producer = Andrew S. Karsch
distributor = United Artists
released = May 12 1989
runtime = 95 mins
language = English
budget =
music =
awards =
imdb_id = 0098160

"The Rachel Papers" is a 1989 British film based on the novel of the same name by Martin Amis. It stars Dexter Fletcher and Ione Skye as the two main characters, and a number of famous names in supporting roles such as Jonathan Pryce, Bill Paterson, James Spader, Jared Harris and Claire Skinner, as well as a cameo appearance by Michael Gambon.

With the original novel having described both emotional and physical experiences told from a narrative point of view, Dexter Fletcher conveys this stance by performing occasional "asides" to the audience and often "monologuing" to the camera in a style similar to the posture adopted by Matthew Broderick in the American film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" from 1986. This has often led to critics citing this film as the UK's answer to that one, although aside from the monologuing, the two films are otherwise largely unalike in terms of plot and characters.

Plot

Nineteen year old Charles (Fletcher) is a highly sexed and precociously intelligent teenager about to attend Oxford University. Before he does he intends to use all his charm and intelligence to seduce a beautiful American girl, Rachel (Skye). Charles becomes completely besotted by Rachel, and after numerous rebuffs he eventually forges a friendship with her. Things become complicated, however, and his strategy becomes threatened. Rachel already has a boyfriend, DeForest (Spader); however, he is a control freak who does not treat her particularly well. With help from his sister Jenny, his lunatic brother-in-law Norman (Pryce) and best friend and big brother mentor Geoff (Harris), Charles eventually manages to lure Rachel away from DeForest, and his father Gordon (Paterson) is impressed with Charles' new quarry; however, as the unlikely relationship develops, Charles discovers that his seemingly "perfect" woman has numerous dislikeable habits and personality traits, just like all of the other "lesser" girls he has previously seduced. Irritated by some of Rachel's habits, Charles is seduced by, and later sleeps with, his old flame Gloria (Skinner), ending his relationship with Rachel, who subsequently moves to New York; Charles then realises all too late that he had fallen genuinely in love with Rachel while he was with her and regrets his actions, but is forced to face the reality that he has lost her forever.

Reception

The film was very popular with teens and young adults in Britain on initial release in 1989 and was tipped as the most promising 'coming of age' film to emerge from the UK since Gregory's Girl nine years earlier; it has remained something of a cult favourite over Europe since.

However, reactions to the film were mixed - US critics and movie-goers accused director Damian Harris of stealing the narrative approach to the principal character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Dexter Fletcher took an enormous amount of criticism for this, while James Spader (the highest-paid actor in the cast, despite being in a minority role) also took a great deal of criticism for a largely listless and uninspiring performance, despite having played an almost identical role in the film Pretty In Pink three years earlier.

In the UK, the main criticism of the film was that the production team changed Charles from the arrogant womaniser/talented writer he was in the book into a likeable computer nerd, clearly attempting to cash in on the remaining popularity of such 1980s films as WarGames and Weird Science. Additionally, fans of the original novel by Martin Amis complained that the film strayed too far away from the original story within the novel, that the character of Rachel should have been English, as she is in the book, and that the book's very bleak ending was toned down too much.

Jonathan Pryce is largely considered by both fans and critics of the film to be the strongest member of the cast, portraying the insane but well-meaning brother-in-law Norman, further exemplifying his versatility as an actor, while the film also helped the then-unknown but promising actor Jared Harris to become a household name.

Internationally, the film did little serious business commercially when released outside Europe and was a box office flop when released in the US

External links

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