IMDb user comments for
Intimate Relations (1996)

Werbung

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Spoiler verstecken:

Seite 1 von 2:

[1] [2]

Übersicht

12 Nutzerkommentare insgesamt

---

6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Has A Bizarre Feel, 6. Mai 2004

Author: Theo Robertson von Isle Of Bute , Scotland

Harold Guppy leaves the navy and lodges with the Beasley family . Before he`s unpacked his case he`s bonking the middle aged Majorie Beasley and before he knows it the daughter , the thirteen year old Joyce Beasley is wanting a shot

Does this sound like a movie with a lot of potential of laughs ? I didn`t think so either but for some reason writer/director Philip Goodhew has gone all out to make INTIMATE RELATIONS a tragic black farce . I have to admit that I didn`t laugh once or even feel like smiling as I imagine was Goodhew`s intention , I just kept saying to myself " Gawd some people deserve to be strung up " , I can`t think of a movie I`ve seen recently with so many unlikable people . It should also be pointed out that the very serious ending jars with the saucy postcard humour of the rest of the film

I will give the director some credit for getting the best out of the cast . Rupert Graves manages to communicate the angst of his character Harold Guppy rather well while Julie Walters is also good as Majorie , but the late Laura Sadler is absolutely superb as young Joyce

But the cast are unable to stop me thinking that perhaps this is a movie that shouldn`t have been made , especially with its comedic feel

---

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Definitely Wierd and Dysfunctional Family Fare, 19. September 2000
Author: Alice Copeland Brown (alicecbrown@yahoo.com) von Boston

If you feel that your family isn't quite right, see this movie and you'll be grateful for what you have. This mother is the mother from Hell, seducing the boarder...a baby-faced ex-reform school lad. But he's an angel compared to her and her pitiful completely wierded out daughter. Guess you would be too if you shared a bed with your mama doing the nasty. Then of course, he refused to play on the night he catered inexplicably to this kids' attempt at blackmail.

Loved the English countryside, despite the fact that it was splashed with gore. It's an interesting diversion from what passes as entertainment today. Wonder what the TRUTH was. Glad that the veteran with one leg at least got Christmas cards from the Veteran's Group over there;;;;that's ALL he ever got.

---

5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Shockingly good psychological thriller & true, 7. August 2003

Author: tenpercent von Midwest - USA

This is not a film for everyone - it does have scenes that could be disturbing for some people - like when the daughter climbs into bed with Mum & the tenant.

However, nothing overtly graphic is shown.

I found this film absolutely fascinating because of the way it builds psychologically on the mental peculiarities of the people involved.

Harold Guppy, an English sailor, comes home--home being his only relative--a married brother--he has not seen in years. However, there's a falling out and Harold rents a room from a family in the area.

This family consists of Seymour, Marjorie and their 13 year old daughter, Joyce.

Seymour, a war veteran, has but one leg. It is not clear if this is what is off-setting to his wife, Marjorie, or not. The fact she either had, or pretended to have, some kind of medical condition several years ago, is the reason she gives her husband for why she won't have marital relations with him--and the two have separate bedrooms.

Joyce, the young girl, however, shares the bedroom with Mum--as she likes to be called. She even tells her young tenant to call her Mum.

It is quickly obvious to the viewer that Marjorie is a couple of cans short of having a six pack. She definitely has a rather peculiar way of reacting to things--such as her daughter getting her first period--and the daughter later coming into the tenant's bedroom and catching Mum in the sack with him.

The daughter, Joyce, is given to rather odd outbursts of a somewhat morbid nature from time to time, and so it is apparent that she too, isn't quite as mentally healthy as she could be.

The reason I gave this film a rating of 9 rather than 10 is because there is a scene where Harold takes Joyce to the hotel. This scene is crucial to what transpires later between the 3 principal characters - yet no explanation is ever given for why Harold made this decision--just what he was trying to accomplish.

The tensions mount--and as a viewer, I kept feeling someone was going to get it--but who, when, how, and why--unless this tangled trio's relationships end.

The person you expect to be the victim of mayhem shifts as the characters twist and turn in a vicious entwining of anger, hatred, and sense of entrapment builds and builds together with the growing madness. In which one character's insanity contributes, in my opinion, to the mental state of the others.

---

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Based on actual events??, 3. Oktober 2003

Author: afncsu von North Carolina, USA

This movie was good, but very weird. It is hard to believe that people can be so demented. Laura Sadler gave a great performance as young Joyce Beasley. I was looking forward to seeing her in future movies, but sadly, she passed away.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Will stand the test of time., 7. Mai 2004
Author: philipdavies von United Kingdom

Brilliantly accomplished descent into a domestic suburban normality whose 50's banality masks the dysfunctional morbidity of a household which is an almost Ortonesque symposium of 'inappropriate behaviour'. Except that the black humour turns to a sense of hysteria. Even the last attempt by the sexually triangulated characters to escape the emotional miasma of their huis-clos by pic-nicing in the countryside is tragically doomed.

Ultimately, they destroy each other in a distinctly incestuous and furious resolution by people hopelessly isolated from decent society, beyond the pale of ordinary acceptance, forgiveness, or indeed of any possible closure but that of death.

Horrific and disgusting - most definitely.

But infinitely pitiable, as well, and a tragedy of truly Greek proportions, reminding us that the respectable shibboleths of civilised morality, such as 'Mum' constantly employs in her sententious middle-class way to 'shore against the ruins' of a collapsing private world, are not necessarily sufficient to guard us against our own flawed nature. The drama in this film has a Sophoclean power, and leaves us humbled and cleansed by the spectacle of puny individuals destroyed by forces greater than themselves.

We shudder at the spectacle, and are perhaps purified thereby of the temptation to indulge too readily our own baser natures. In Greek terms, we learn a new respect for the gods that rule over our mortal nature.

The dramatisation of such awe and pity restores us to our right mind. This is a very unusual object for a contemporary film: So often it is the 'authenticity' of transgression which is lauded and extolled in modern culture, no matter what the cost. Perhaps this film is seen by modern audiences as in some sense therefore 'reactionary' in its revulsion from the fate of its characters, who are seen by the writer and director in Classical terms as having been trapped and destroyed, rather than as having achieved any meaningful selfhood? Not for this director the typically adolescent Romanticism that so admires the supreme perversity of self-immolation. It is not that he condemns his characters for their weakness, or even that he harps particularly upon their evil natures, for he does neither, choosing instead to regret the selfishness, the solipsism, that has excluded them from the human family. Much as Mankind in general is excluded from the innocence of its early, Edenic, dreams by the psychological burden of a self-consciousness that actually is the guilty sense of being regarded as having drawn attention to the Self: The whole psychological evolution of modern man seems to demand that we must constantly seek to submerge our sense of the obtruding and distracting self to our sense of the Other. Whereas, in 'Mum''s household rebellious emotions finally overwhelm all pretence of domesticity, and the world beyond their walls, for them, ceases to be of any relevance or significance, and therefore becomes absolutely untenable and unsustainable. There is no 'consequence-free' zone where they may be permitted to go off and begin new lives, in any conceivably more sympathetic milieu: As much as in Arthur Penn's film of 'Bonnie & Clyde' these are lives driven to their own destruction by their own interior demons. They are by no means the exemplary free spirits that some might wish them to represent. Quite the opposite - they are the damned. They are a lesson, and a warning.

It is possibly for just such conceptual offence against the reckless modern creed of untrammeled and indulged Individualism that this film has been punished at the box-office, upon its release. It is made a more important film thereby, and will stand the test of time, that destroys the transient glamour of fashion.

All the acting is very fine, but Julie Walters gives a phenomenal performance. Altogether a great piece of work.

---

2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Captures your interest, but falls apart, 5. August 2003

Author: Undead_Master

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie doesn't really have a hero... Everybody in the movie eventually does something that causes you to question their integrity or decency and you never really understand the underlying motivations causing the behavior. As a result, it's impossible to identify with any of the characters and the movie breaks down. A film without a hero is not necessarily a bad thing all by itself, but you have to handle it properly. In this case, they didn't.

It starts off well enough and plays through the first 30 or 40 minutes as a black comedy... Then things get darker and not so funny anymore and that is when the movie begins to fall apart. You can't really stop watching it but you wish you could and by the time it's over you wish you'd never started.

The ending, especially, leaves something to be desired.. You never really feel the ending coming and when it happens, it's not only a surprise, but a disappointing surprise. It fails to shed any light on the rest of the film. I like surprise endings most of the time, but in this case it just didn't work for me.

There are probably many people out there that would enjoy this movie, but personally I can't recommend it. It's well made, and well acted, but in the end, it is a disturbing disappointment.

---

where can I get a copy?, 25. Juli 2006
Author: bill-354 (schillings@enter.net) von United States

I cannot find a copy (DVD or VHS) of this film. I have checked Amazon.com, Movie Unlimited, Sunburst and a couple other less known sources.

It is difficult to imagine a film with such good reviews not being available. If anyone can e-mail (schillings@enter.net) me a lead on where I can obtain a copy compatible with U.S. player/VCR standards I would appreciate it.

Or if anyone knows of any plans to reissue copies of this film, I would appreciate any details. Similarly, any leads on who I could write to for information would be appreciated. Thanks.

---

Unusually fascinating and quite enjoyable in ways that are difficult to explain., 22. Januar 2005

Author: skin-and-bones von United States

Perverse, well-acted (Julie Walters cheery, mother-knows-best, psycho-bitch performance is not to be missed), and endlessly interesting little-seen English film tells the odd tale of how in the early 1950's one very ignorant young man unwittingly got himself involved with one very demented old gal and her equally disturbed teenage daughter soon after renting a room out of their home. Comparable to "The Young Poisoner's Handbook" in atmosphere, and in it's morbidly gleeful presentation of strange, little heard true-crime stories. "Intimate Relations" is an oddly enjoyable film if you allow yourself to be on the same twisted wave length as the flick. Eye-brow raising scenes galore fill this movie, I'll admit, and a good deal of creative liberties are taken with the true story on which this film is based. I still, regardless of all, highly recommend "Intimate Relations" if you can get your hands on it. Because, I am of the opinion (like previous reviewers have stated) that seeing a movie like this is almost healthy now and then in that it jars your senses and makes you grateful that your family isn't as messed up as the one witnessed in this movie!

---

breathtaking, 22. August 2002

Author: RoyStead von London, England

A movie which is breathtaking in its simplicity and honesty. The cinematography perfectly complements the storyline, and the director/writer manages to carefully deliver each item of character backstory precisely when it's needed, without seeming in any way contrived.

A true character-driven movie with the always-reliable Julie Walters.

---

One of the best movies I've seen, 3. November 2001

Author: sundaygirl05 (sundaygirl05@cs.com) von Oregon, US

This movie is brilliant, really it is. The fact that it is based on a true story only adds to it and makes it that much better.

Basically, this movie is following Harold Guppy, a man who we want to like but does some pretty despicable things on our road to the ending. He seems like he's had quite a bit of trouble in his life (he lets us know in a discussion with his brother) and he wants to start fresh. This won't be the only time he has such ambitions.

Harold is immediately welcomed into a family who are looking to rent a room. Enter Julie Walters. Although it's a nice, friendly, relationship at first, Harold and Mrs. Beasley's relationship soon turn sexual (though he's in his 30's and she her 50's), where they even result in having sex in bed with Mrs. Beasley's (or as he calls her, Mum's) daughter Joyce.

Their relationship is smooth enough until Harold decides he wants to get out. Mum has this psychological control over him and it isn't healthy. They are now regularly sleeping together (with Joyce still in the bed) and Harold needs to get out of the situation. So he escapes, at least, for a while.

Soon enough Mum has control of him again, saying she'll tell the police that Harold sexually abused Joyce. So here he is again, back in Mum's control.

We are led to believe that Harold really is a good boy, just a weak one. We have compassion for him, as he really needs Mum (it's not as if he ever had one growing up), and he can't escape. But he must.

All the way to the end, we pity our Harold as everything falls apart. And it does fall apart for poor Harold.

This movie is sad in its simplicity and we do feel for many of the characters, Harold's brother and wife, Mum's children, Joyce, Mr. Beasley, the list goes on.

I'd suggest this movie a million times over. The film-maker films each shot so coldly, there never really is any sunshine, and everything seems so grey...it's reminiscent of the relationship Harold and Mum have. Icy.

Julie Walters and Rupert Graves deliver masterly performances, as well as the young girl who is Joyce. Congrats to everyone who worked on this film, it's amazing.

---

---

Seite 1 von 2:

[1] [2]

Add another comment

---

Weitere Links

Plot summary	Amazon.com Video	Nutzerbewertungen
Filmpreise	Newsgroup reviews	Externe Kritiken
Plot keywords	Hauptübersicht	Your user comments
Your vote history