THE PARTY

It took seconds for exsanguination to squelch Sally Potter’s desperately ambitious, shrilly delivered parody on politics, infidelity and scathing commentary on British intelligentsia; it took seventy-one minutes for the protagonists to sink to the lowest common denominator: “Janet” (Kristin Scott Thomas) is celebrating her “crowning” as  Health Minister; “Bill” (Timothy Spall) her bibulous, blubbering husband; “April” (outstanding Patricia Clarkson) a bitter, caustic realist married to “Gottfried” (Bruno Ganz) a guru, regurgitating meaningless aphorisms; pregnant, mismatched couple “Jinny” & “Martha” (Emily Mortimer, Cherry Jones); “Tom” (Cillian Murphy) a cocaine addled business man, representing untoward capitalism; his wife, “Marianne” (never seen, never missed) is a flagrant cheat. Filmed in black and white, bleakly forecasting the disintegration of “the party”;  fine actors, struggle valiantly with their overwhelming campy characterizations of solipsistic paranoia.

“The Party” an example of the best of intentions,  gone amuck.

TWO STARS!!

Peneflix