Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous movie!, 21 Nov 2007
This was one of the few good movies to come out of the 80s. Although I am not keen on films with this sort of theme, I found this an absolute tonic! Hilariously funny in places, which will have you in tears with laughter - before it gets a bit more 'serious' that is.
Emily Lloyd is superb as Linda - the girl with 'attitude', and is most entertaining as we follow her story from the little girl who says 'bum' during a prim family gathering, to a young woman who ends up pregnant after 'bonking' an older man (Tom Bell) in her father's garden shed!
Mixed in with the silliness, we do have some rather moving scenes about a girl who is looking for affection and attention from anywhere she can get it, but doesn't have in inkling on how to go about it... Instead, she sells herself short, and soon discovers that the easiest way to obtain it is to 'flaunt' her sexuality at anything in trousers. Ironically though, this often results into tremendously comic scenes rather than sympathetic ones, and these, however prim the viewer, will simply have to be amused by. Just try and be offended when you see Emily Lloyd's character run around the garden skipping late at night singing and shouting 'up your bum'! I guarantee this will have you in stitches!
Buy this now - it's been unavailable for too long!
Enjoy!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wishing She Was Elsewhere, 22 Nov 2008
The latter of two British films scripted by David Leland and based upon the life of Cynthia Payne, a former madam and prostitute (the other, released just five months earlier, being "Personal Services", featuring Julie Walters), this film looks at her early life and sexual experiences. It does so in the style of a 1960s "kitchen sink" drama, focusing on the everyday aspects of sex and sexuality, such as condoms and nosy uncles. But this film is made absolutely unforgettable by the performance of Emily Lloyd, playing "Linda" (the Cynthia Payne character), in which she displays remarkable fire, vigour, over-brimming life and downright bare-faced cheek (in more ways than one!).
In fact Lloyd's performance is so dazzling that it makes you feel that it is being contrasted against the grim grey boring 1950s the characters inhabit. It's a setting where decorum is more important than feelings which are to be repressed, and sex is often a matter of ignorance or salacious advantage-taking. In this setting Linda explodes, a dervish who kicks against all repression and breaks every rule simply because she wants to. Maybe her behaviour is childish and attention-seeking, but then so were the 1960s in many ways.
And this is just about my only criticism of the film - the 1950s are presented as a monochrome, uniform, dull and repressive era, when in fact they had jazz and early rock and roll and Abstract Expressionism in art, all of which were as exciting as British Invasion and Mary Quant and the Mini. Never mind, each generation paints an unflattering picture of that preceding it, and this repressive atmosphere of course heightens the constrast between the seemingly irrepresible Linda and the dull times she lived in.
I say "seemingly" of course because Linda does get damaged by the events and escapades she goes into, sometimes naively, sometimes more as a victim. The ending in particular is a feel-good fantasy of an ending, especially given the darker second half of the film showing the consequences of all her transgressions. But all the same, this is an extremely enjoyable film, with a stunning lead and solid support (I especially like the apparently unflappable psychologist whom she runs ring around), and with a fair evocation of a time when seaside postcards were the limit of a nation's bawdy instincts. A more innocent time perhaps, but as this films shows, not necessarily a better time.
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2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not As Good As It Looks, 2 Oct 2008
I watched Wish You Were Here by chance late at night on Film 4.
The story is based around Linda, a sixteen year old girl living in a seaside town with her parents. She is constantly cursing (the cursing is very mild, in this film the characters look upon 'bum' as a bad word.)
After watching Wish You Were Here I was a little bit disappointed, yes some scenes were funny & I could relate to some of the situations Linda faced, but otherwise I suppose I just didn't get it.
Linda clearly has low self esteem, she soon finds that falunting her sexuality is the way she can get the attention she craves, this results in her sleeping with a number of not so nice men (who are clearly using her) to boost her ego.
There is part of me that sympathises with her, but another part that just thinks she gets what she deserves by putting herself in these positions in the first place.
I don't know what it was about this film that I didn't like, Emily Lloyd's (Linda) performance was phenomenal but I suppose the major downer for me was that I had such high expectations of the film, thinking it would have more action & be a lot funnier than it actually was.
In conclusion, I wouldn't advise people to buy this film because you wouldn't be missing out on much. Yes its entertaining, but no its not what I would classify as a good film, although if you want a drunken Saturday night film with little thought recquired this would be a wise choice.
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