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Bright Young Things (2003)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 107
Fresh: 70 | 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.

Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 11

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.

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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, 1 hr. 45 min.

Drama, Comedy

Directed By: Stephen Fry

Written By: Stephen Fry

In Theaters: Aug 20, 2003 Wide

On DVD: Feb 8, 2005

Box Office:$0.8M

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Bright Young Things Trailer & Photos

Cast

Critic Reviews for Bright Young Things

All Critics (112) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (71) | Rotten (38) | DVD (12)

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

| Comment

Stephen Hunter

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

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

| Comment

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Top Critic

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

| Comment

Geoff Pevere

Toronto Star

Top Critic

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

| Comment

Joe Baltake

Sacramento Bee

Top 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

| Comment

Jay Boyar

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

Since no one is playing a rounded character -- just pawns in Waugh's linguistic 'exercise' -- the performances are necessarily mere snapshots haphazardly crammed into a chaotic album.

September 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail

| Comment

Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

Top 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 Comment

Prairie Miller

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

| Comment

Jane Howdle

Empire Magazine

The wit never comes through the art deco settings.

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

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

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

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

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

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

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

| Comment

Daniel Wible

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

| Comment

Scott Nash

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

| Comment

Philip Martin

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

| Comment

Dan Devine

PopMatters

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

November 2, 2004 Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine

| Comment

Glenn Kenny

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 Comment

Prairie Miller

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

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Anthony Del Valle

Las Vegas Mercury

Fry directs his performers with real sensitivity; as the film moves along it becomes a showcase for some really wonderful ensemble acting.

October 26, 2004 Full Review Source: F5 (Wichita, KS)

| Comment

Jake Euker

F5 (Wichita, KS) Source: F5 (Wichita, KS)

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Audience Reviews for Bright Young Things

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Airy-fairy dross that lacks substance.

February 5, 2011

Ross Collins

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

November 19, 2009

Jake ....

Super Reviewer

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