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Withnail & I (1987)

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Information

Year: 1987
Runtime: 107 min.
Director: Bruce Robinson
Genres: Drama, Comedy
Rating *: 7.8
Votes *: 28,544
Checks: 8,866
Favs: 997
Dislikes: 90
Favs/checks: 11.2% (1:9)
Favs/dislikes: 11:1

* View IMDb information

Top comments

goatboy
We've gone on holiday by mistake. 11 years 11 months ago
beeswax
As a youth I used to weep in butcher shops. 12 years ago
Siskoid
You get two interregnum Doctors for the price of one in Withnail and I - Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant - a somewhat meandering fiction based on the author's diary from his days as a struggling actor in late 60s England. If the Doctor Who angle interests you, the two leads are really playing to type. McGann is a manic soul, seeing monsters under ever dirty dish, a nervous, neurotic poet. Grant is his callous, self-serving, vain, venal room mate, a real misery. Both are powerful presences and if the plot, which eventually takes them on a road trip to the country ("a holiday by accident") where they can be even more miserable, is thin, the acting is not. I have to say I care much less when they're NOT on that trip, though. Among the other eccentrics in the film, Richard Griffiths has the largest and most important role, as Withnail's gay uncle whose advances McGann's character must fight off. Though the latter protests that he is not gay, there's still a certain sexual ambivalence exuding from the film that makes the central relationship ambiguous, and that's interesting. I'm also enamored of the many Hamlet references because Hamletesque inaction is certainly part of the film's themes, and the two characters are more like two facets of the Dane than the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern comic double act. And yet, they're that too. Deeper than it at first seems. 5 years 5 months ago

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In 14 official lists

This movie ranks #15 in Time Out's The 100 Best British Films

Time Out's The 100 Best …
15
This movie ranks #24 in BBC's The 100 Greatest Comedies of All Time

BBC's The 100 Greatest C…
24
This movie ranks #29 in BFI's Top 100 British Films

BFI's Top 100 British Fi…
29
This movie ranks #40 in iCheckMovies's 1980s Top 100

iCheckMovies's 1980s Top…
40
This movie ranks #106 in BFI's 100 Cult Films

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106
This movie ranks #118 in Empire's The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time

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118
This movie ranks #140 in The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection
140
This movie ranks #345 in Roger Ebert's Great Movies

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345
This movie ranks #369 in Jennifer Eiss's 500 Essential Cult Movies

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369
This movie ranks #489 in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films

TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest F…
489
This movie ranks #514 in Sight & Sound's The Greatest Films of All Time

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514
This movie ranks #773 in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

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773
This movie ranks #916 in Halliwell's Top 1000: The Ultimate Movie Countdown

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916
This movie ranks #979 in The Guardian's 1000 Films to See Before You Die

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979