Peter’s Friends, written by Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman

Peter’s Friends, written by Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman

                What a phenomenal cast!

                Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Imelda Staunton, Kenneth Branagh…

The latter is also directing this not very well known film

It is New Year’s Eve.

Six friends get together to celebrate.

This is supposed to be quite a fete.

The setting is majestic, luxuriant.

The always-sparkling Stephen Fry portrays Peter Morton, the man from the title.

Only we do not know that for some time.

Peter has inherited an impressive, exquisite property where he is thrilled to invite his friends from Cambridge.

The issues of these people will be funny at times, depressing at other and overall a challenge to deal with.

Kenneth Branagh, the director is Andrew in the motion picture.

He is married to Carol, an American actress with an apparently difficult personality and a tendency to eat a lot.

Indeed, one night she empties the whole, large refrigerator which was filled with food for the whole party of six.

However, almost all the protagonists are not one-dimensional and have complex profiles and this is what makes the story interesting.

Carol is obsessed with her professional life, appearance, celebrity material and her career, but this is not all.

She helps Emma Thompson aka Maggie Chester get over her deception that involves Peter and his attitude.

-          Talk to me Maggie…I am the expert…analysts call me for advice!

-          He says he is gay

-          Tell me about it…I was married to one

-          Really? What happened?

-          He left me

Hugh Laurie alias Roger is married to Mary aka Imelda Staunton and their problem is being centered on their kids.

Well, Mary is concerned with what the children do and if the baby sitter is able to handle them.

To the point of madness…

Sarah is another one of the Cambridge friends and the circle had considered her a sort of a nymphomaniac, out of the Lars von Trier series, before their time…

Only this was her way of trying to find emotion, affection, acceptance, warmth, companionship…

Sarah has arrived here with a…dick.

No, I am exaggerating of course.

However, the woman is confusing sex with the real thing.

Unable to find fulfilment in the series of short, carnal relations she has with various men, she quickly has a clash with them.

Besides, the current lover has a wife and children and gets emotional and ridiculous in conversations with them, on the phone.

However, the blow comes from Peter.

That is the nadir and the climax of the film.

He reveals a truth that I cannot uncover here without a spoiler alert and what would be the point of that here.

We have reached the end of the note anyway and the conclusion is that this is not the best production in which you can admire any of the stars of the cast, but it probably is the only one where you can see them all together.