Peter's Friends

REVIEW
Attempting to be a British Big Chill meets The Rules of the Game by way of "Writing Comedy for the Movies 101" outline, the story is set in a large English manor where six old university friends meet for a ten-year reunion. This cast of "wacky" stock characters includes director-star Branagh as a talented writer who sells himself off for money in Hollywood; his vulgar, loud-mouthed wife Rudner (the film's cowriter); Fry as the lumbering host harboring a "secret"; and Thompson (who outshines them all) as a gawky, eccentric woman trying desperately to change. Infused with admittedly funny, even witty one-liners, the film suffers from an all-too-familiar sitcom feel. The film's final "revelation" that the bisexual Peter is infected with HIV is a cheap, exploitative device aimed at triggering sappy, liberal sympathies.