Sweet Revenge (1998 film)
Encyclopedia
Sweet Revenge is a 1998 British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 written and directed by Malcolm Mowbray
Malcolm Mowbray
Malcolm Mowbray is a British screenwriter and television and film director.Mowbray began his career in television, directing episodes of Premiere, BBC2 Playhouse, and Objects of Affection...

. The screenplay is based on the epic two-part play The Revengers' Comedies
The Revengers' Comedies
The Revengers' Comedies is a play by Alan Ayckbourn. Its title references that of The Revenger's Tragedy. The play is an epic piece running more than five hours and was designed to be presented in two parts...

by Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...

.

The film had a brief and modestly successful theatrical run in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 under the title Loves and Vendettas but failed to find a distributor elsewhere. It eventually was telecast in the UK by BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 on December 30, 1999
1999 in television
The year 1999 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1999.For the American TV schedule, see: 1999-00 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...

. It was released on videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in the US .

Plot synopsis

The plot, reminiscent of the Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

 film Strangers on a Train
Strangers on a Train (film)
Strangers on a Train is an American psychological thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. It was shot in the autumn of 1950 and released by Warner Bros. on June 30, 1951. The film stars Farley Granger, Ruth Roman,...

, focuses on two disparate characters. Conservative Henry Bell has been eased out of his job by condescending Bruce Tick, while wealthy and wildly eccentric Karen Knightly has been abandoned by her lover Anthony Staxton-Billing, who opted to return to his wife Imogen. Both are intent on committing suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 by leaping from the Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. When neither succeeds, they strike a bargain whereby each agrees to exact revenge on behalf of the other, although Henry is less enthusiastic about the plan.

Karen, disguised as a frumpy office temp
Temporary work
Temporary work or temporary employment refers to a situation where the employee is expected to leave the employer within a certain period of time. Temporary employees are sometimes called "contractual", "seasonal", "interim", "casual staff", "freelance", or "part-time"; or the word may be shortened...

, finds employment as an assistant to Tick and quickly derails his marriage by leading his wife Hilary to believe he's involved in an extramarital affair. Henry, meanwhile, is finding it difficult to keep his end of the bargain, since he has fallen in love with Imogen, the object of Karen's revenge. Instead of planning her demise, he begins an affair with the beguiling woman. Henry learns that Anthony left Karen not for Imogen, but for beautician Daphne Teal, and he begins to suspect Karen is more of a villain than a victim. The woman proves to be a formidable foe when she realizes Henry may renege on their deal.

Adding to the humorous complications are Karen's oddball brother Oliver, who delights in racing through the interior of their rural mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 on his motor scooter
Scooter (motorcycle)
A scooter is a motorcycle with step-through frame and a platform for the operator's feet. Elements of scooter design have been present in some of the earliest motorcycles, and motorcycles identifiable as scooters have been made from 1914 or earlier...

; elderly and slightly befuddled housekeeper Winnie; and Daphne's very inept daughter Norma, who's being groomed to take over the household chores so Winnie finally can retire.

Production

Rural scenes were filmed in Weston Turville
Weston Turville
Weston Turville is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile and a half south east of Aylesbury and the parish is bisected across the top by Akeman Street....

 in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

. Interiors were filmed at the Twickenham Film Studios
Twickenham Film Studios
Twickenham Film Studios is a film studio located in St Margarets, London, England used by many motion picture and television companies. It was established in 1913 by Dr. Ralph Jupp on the site of a former ice-rink. At the time of its original construction, it was the largest film studio in the...

 in Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

.

Cast

  • Sam Neill
    Sam Neill
    Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....

     ..... Henry Bell
  • Helena Bonham Carter
    Helena Bonham Carter
    Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...

     ..... Karen Knightly
  • Kristin Scott Thomas
    Kristin Scott Thomas
    Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....

     ..... Imogen Staxton-Billing
  • Rupert Graves
    Rupert Graves
    Rupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...

     ..... Oliver Knightly
  • Martin Clunes
    Martin Clunes
    Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, Doctor Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin and the title character in Reggie Perrin....

     ..... Anthony Staxton-Billing
  • Steve Coogan
    Steve Coogan
    Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

     ..... Bruce Tick
  • Liz Smith
    Liz Smith (actress)
    Liz Smith, MBE is a British actress, best-known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...

     ..... Winnie
  • Charlotte Coleman
    Charlotte Coleman
    Charlotte Ninon Coleman was an English actress best known for playing Scarlett in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral , Jess in the television drama Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and her childhood roles of Sue in Worzel Gummidge and the character Marmalade Atkins...

     ..... Norma
  • Anita Dobson
    Anita Dobson
    Anita Dobson is an English television actress and singer. She gained her highest profile while playing Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...

     ..... Daphne Teal
  • John Wood
    John Wood (English actor)
    John Wood, CBE was an English actor.-Biography:Wood was born in Derbyshire and studied law at Jesus College, Oxford where he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Changing to drama, Wood became known as a stage actor, appearing in numerous West End productions as well as on...

     ..... Col. Marcus

Critical reception

David Rooney of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

called the film a "mix of dry British wit, sophisticated farce and arch eccentricity," "the kind of material that can sparkle onstage but often sits uneasily onscreen, and tends to have limited pull with today's audiences." He added, "Aside from its humor, Ayckbourn's work is notable for its brisk pacing, multilateral action and the ingenuity of its complex structuring, all qualities that lose something in the screen transfer . . . Mowbray's script opens out the action physically but is unable to shake off the stagy feel. To his credit, he never shies away from the savagery that flavors the best black comedies
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

, but the verve needed to make this one a complete success is nonetheless missing."

External links

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