Bright Young Things

In 1930s London, rebel youth, young adults and the occasional grown-up got all crazy on swing music, alcohol and some funny white powders that were starting to catch on as a way to keep one’s dancing machine rolling all night. Actor-turned-director Stephen Fry has fashioned a rather strange film here, frantically paced with shallow depictions of its main characters. Being that those main characters are supposed to be rather shallow to start, the whole thing works in a weird, often very amusing way. Stephen Campbell Moore is very good as Adam, a young author trying to pull together enough pounds to marry his party-going sweetheart (Emily Mortimer). His National Enquirer-type gossip column becomes a phenomenon, and his party going compatriots spin out of control. A fun supporting cast, including Jim Broadbent as a "drunken General" who takes Adam’s money to bet on a horse, then promptly disappears. The film’s highlight is a small role played by Peter O’Toole, who is pitch perfect as Mortimer’s daffy father. Not an incredibly consistent film, but it does have many laugh-out-loud moments.