In adapting her stage play Posh for the screen, writer Laura Wade has expanded the before and after of the abhorrent Oxford University society dinner that was the main course: 10 guys around a table, behaving badly. While the 2010 Royal Court hit was clearly an incendiary affair (some toffs reportedly couldn’t stomach the satire and walked out), Lone Scherfig’s film seems uncertain how far to push the vileness of its over-privileged protagonists, torn between engaging our sympathies for new recruit Miles (Max Irons) and exposing the awfulness of these Bullingdon Club-style bully boys.
Cameron, Osborne and Johnson may now be embarrassed by photos of themselves in “Buller” drag (knowingly restaged here), but to justify spending time with such obnoxious bores Scherfig’s film really needed more bite. At times I was reminded of the shortcomings of Steven Berkoff’s Decadence, which somehow lost its teeth in the transition from stage to screen. Still, the performances of the young cast are committedly brittle, especially Ben Schnetzer playing the antithesis of his Tory-baiting role in Pride. But old hand Tom Hollander steals the show as the smilingly sinister MP whose creepy manner and visage is chillingly familiar.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion