''Peter's Friends'' is a 1992 British
comedy film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
directed and produced by
Kenneth Branagh, and written by
Rita Rudner and
Martin Bergman.
The film follows six friends (played by
Stephen Fry
Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...
, Branagh,
Alphonsia Emmanuel,
Hugh Laurie,
Imelda Staunton and
Emma Thompson), members of an acting troupe who graduated from
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
in 1982 and went their separate ways. Ten years later, Peter inherits a large estate from his father and invites the group to spend the New Year's holiday with him.
Plot
Peter and his five friends act together in a
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
student comedy troupe. They are shown performing on New Year's Eve, ringing in 1983 for Peter's father and his own group of middle-aged friends at the family's country estate. The stodgy partygoers are underwhelmed by the stylings of Peter and his friends, whose only supporters seem to be the family housekeeper, Vera, and her young son, Paul.
Ten years later, Peter has recently inherited the family estate, and invites his friends up for the 1992-1993 New Year's weekend.
Peter's friends are Andrew, now a writer in
Hollywood; married jingle writers Roger and Mary; glamorous costume designer Sarah; and eccentric Maggie, who works in publishing. Joining them are Carol, Andrew's American TV star wife; and impolite Brian, Sarah's very recently acquired, and still married, lover. Vera, and the now grown Paul, are still at the estate, though Vera has given their notice, intending to leave immediately after the weekend, as Peter plans to sell the house after this last party.
Andrew and Carol's marriage is strained by the demands of her fame, made worse by Mary's inappropriate mention that Andrew and Sarah had been engaged a decade earlier. Roger and Mary are recovering from a devastating personal tragedy, made more difficult by Mary ringing home every few minutes and by Brian suddenly talking at length about using their twins in one of their commercials, which leads to the revelation (to Brian, and the audience) that one of the toddler twins died nine months earlier. Lonely Maggie is determined to persuade Peter they should be more than just friends, and Sarah is not as happy with her life as she appears.
The weekend does not go as planned. After a failed attempt to seduce Peter, where he reveals he is bisexual but no longer sleeping with either sex, Maggie receives a
makeover from Carol and successfully seduces Paul. Carol leaves Andrew and returns to America, and after a year of
sobriety Andrew returns to the bottle. Roger and Mary reach an emotional breakthrough, share their grief and address her obsessive overprotection of their remaining child. Brian calls his wife, who comes to pick him up, after he realizes that Sarah is not interested in that which she already has, but only in that which belongs to someone else. In the climax of the film, Peter reveals the real reason for his bringing them all together: he is
HIV-positive. The friends emerge from their own problems and pledge their assistance to Peter.
Cast
Production and casting
Most of the cast are actually old university friends or have previously collaborated in other films. Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery attended the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
and had been members of the
Cambridge Footlights, a student comedy troupe similar to the one portrayed in the film, at the same time. Co-writer Martin Bergman (husband of co-writer/star Rita Rudner) also attended Cambridge and was a member of the Footlights as well.
Prior to filming,
Fry and Laurie were already a successful
double act with TV series ''
A Bit of Fry & Laurie
''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series ...
'' and ''
Jeeves and Wooster''. At the time the film was made, Branagh was married to Thompson, who had also dated Laurie during their university days. Phyllida Law is Thompson's mother and along with Richard Briers, Imelda Staunton and Alex Lowe appeared with Branagh and Thompson in Branagh's adaptation of ''
Much Ado About Nothing'' the following year. More than a decade later Fry, Law and Slattery appeared together in the ITV series ''
Kingdom''.
Filming took place at
Wrotham Park in
Hertfordshire. The central character of Peter is said to have been partly inspired by
Nicholas Eden, the son of former British Prime Minister
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achi ...
who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS after inheriting his father's titles.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack featured many artists from the 1980s, including
Tears for Fears (whose song "
Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was heard over the opening credits of the film),
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
,
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are a British rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (ba ...
,
Daryl Braithwaite,
Kiri Te Kanawa and
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
.
The soundtrack album did not, however, feature the cast's rendition of the
Jerome Kern standard "
The Way You Look Tonight", as performed in the film nor the song, "Orpheus on the Underground", by John Hudson, which features at the beginning and end of the film.
Reception
Box office
''Peter's Friends'' grossed £3.1 million in the United Kingdom,
and grossed over $4 million in the USA.
Critical response
''Peter's Friends'' was well received by most critics. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
it has an approval rating of 65% based on reviews from 37 critics.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
, film critic of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'', described the film as "more or less predictable", but awarded it three-and-a-half stars, stating, "The structure of ''Peter's Friends'' is not blazingly original - ''
The Big Chill'' comes instantly to mind - but a movie like this succeeds in its particulars. If the dialogue is witty, if the characters are convincingly funny or sad, if there is the right bittersweet nostalgia and the sense that someone is likely to burst into '
Those Were the Days,' then it doesn't matter that we've seen the formula before. This is a new weekend with new friends."
Critic
James Berardinelli gave the film a mixed review, giving it two-and-a-half out of a possible four stars and stating, "At its best, ''Peter's Friends'' is warm, touching, and funny. At its worst, it's annoying and preachy. Fortunately, there are a ''few'' more moments in the former category than in the latter." While praising Branagh's direction and performances by the cast, Berardinelli attributed most of his discontent to the film's screenplay, concluding, "This is Branagh's worst effort to date and shows, if nothing else, that no matter how talented the director and his cast, he still needs a decent screenplay. And that, ultimately, is where ''Peter's Friends'' falls short."
Accolades
''Peter's Friends'' was nominated for a
Goya Award and won two
Evening Standard British Film Awards. It also ranked in eighth place on the
National Board of Review's Top Ten 1992 films.
References
External links
*
{{Kenneth Branagh
1992 films
1992 romantic comedy films
1992 LGBTQ-related films
Films set in 1983
Films set in 1992
Films set in 1993
British LGBTQ-related films
British romantic comedy films
Films about class reunions
The Samuel Goldwyn Company films
Films directed by Kenneth Branagh
Films set in England
Films shot in England
Films set in country houses
Films set around New Year
HIV/AIDS in British films
1990s English-language films
1990s British films
Films produced by Kenneth Branagh
English-language romantic comedy films