Opening

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—— After Earth May 31
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100% The Kings of Summer May 31

Bright Young Things (2003)

tomatometer

66

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 108
Fresh: 71 | Rotten: 37

Colored with witty performances and a camp sense of satire, Stephen Fry's version of Evelyn Waugh's novel may only be fitfully successful but it does mark a promising debut for the British comic.

63

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 13

Colored with witty performances and a camp sense of satire, Stephen Fry's version of Evelyn Waugh's novel may only be fitfully successful but it does mark a promising debut for the British comic.

audience

62

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 6,244

My Rating

Movie Info

British writer/actor Stephen Fry makes his feature-film debut with the witty, sophisticated comedy Bright Young Things, adapted from Evelyn Waugh's 1930 novel Vile Bodies. Set in London during the '30s, this stylish period film follows an ensemble cast of well-dressed and highly literate partygoers. Aspiring writer Adam Fenwick-Symes (stage actor Stephen Campbell Moore) loses the manuscript of his first novel when traveling through customs. He then sets out to raise enough money to marry his

R,

Drama, Comedy

Stephen Fry

Feb 8, 2005

$0.8M

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All Critics (114) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (72) | Rotten (38) | DVD (12)

The 'wit' is leaden and unfunny; the narrative's progress ungainly; the direction stolid.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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One conceit of writer-director Stephen Fry is to dramatize parties as knots of chaos, social hurricanes that spill across the landscape this way and that, ruining lives, eating time, preventing progress of any kind.

July 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
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Though Fry's movie has plenty of nasty wit, it lacks the sheer luxurious malice of Waugh's book. Fry is acerbic; Waugh is lethal.

October 7, 2004 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Suffers from feeling like it's just pretending to be good when it's obviously much, much happier being bad. But when it's bad, it's very, very good.

September 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
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Its chief strength is the obvious deep-seated affection Fry has for each sedated, hung-over soul.

September 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If you yearn for a Brit fix, this is your flick. If not, think twice before checking it out.

September 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Fry seems to believe there's nothing that would fulfill audiences more than to vicariously tag along on screen after fictionalized celebrity types from another time.

August 1, 2007
NY Rock

Though it falls short of Fry's best work in other fields, this is a sound first feature.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

The wit never comes through the art deco settings.

July 4, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

If a movie can draw this kind of talent for mostly miniscule roles, how can you go wrong?

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

The film is a breezy and likable enough entertainment, especially for those of us unfamiliar with Waugh's original.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat
Film Threat

It is in the humorous moments that the movie really hits its stride, with the supporting cast providing many of the laughs.

September 30, 2005 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs
Three Movie Buffs

The uninitiated are hereby warned: Bright Young Things has an exclusionary timbre. Unlike Hollywood films it never slows down to explain a joke or clarify an allusion.

January 8, 2005 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Fry often seems unsure of whether he wants to stress satire or drama, and while a good film can be both, this film is neither.

November 23, 2004 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

A great deal of fun for its first two-thirds.

November 2, 2004 Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine
Premiere Magazine

Fry seems to believe there's nothing that would fulfill audiences more than to vicariously tag along on screen after fictionalized celebrity types from another time.

November 2, 2004
Long Island Press

Memorable characters come and go so often and so franticaly that you wonder if World War II might have been merely the explosion of England's fast pulse.

October 28, 2004 Full Review Source: Las Vegas Mercury
Las Vegas Mercury

Audience Reviews for Bright Young Things

Airy-fairy dross that lacks substance.
February 5, 2011
RossCollinsUK

Super Reviewer

"Bright, young people. That's what they call you. Well, I guess one of out three isn't bad." Bright Young Things is one of the lightest things I've seen in quite a while. It is not serious at all, nor does it take itself seriously. Its flinty, funny, and irreverent. I was curious to see how Stephen Fry would in the director's chair, and he is really rather good. Plus, there is an incredible lineup; with James McAvoy, David Tennant, Jim Broadbent, Michael Sheen, and so many others. I really would never want to watch this again, but it really is great fun to watch once.
November 19, 2009
neverteaseaweasel
Jake ....

Super Reviewer

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