Reviews

I saw the last few minutes of this flick on Tyne Tees telly a couple of years after its theater rounds. In that part of England in those days there was only subsequent run at the Odeon, ABC and Majestic and I never got the chance to see it on a big screen. I can always hope.

I also remember the lurid cover on the paperback as it sat on the rack at Boots alongside Brendan Behan's "Borstal Boy." I had to settle for Mickey Spillane or Ian Fleming instead.

The film is far more gritty than Billy Liar, but Courtenay is identical in both roles in that he has to triumph over adversity in both films. In this role he rejects the life of his father which was subservience to the mill in favor of living large, but not very. In short he aspired to be a spiv just to blend in. But he needs to impress a couple of birds too, and that takes money -- and love of money is the root of all evil.

Then he gets a mini-vacation in a castle stolen by Oliver Cromwell and eventually converted to a government-owned barracks to meet the conveniences of World War II. I have never seen the concrete post with barbed wire any other place than England. In this boot camp styled borstal he has to confront his demons and decide just exactly who he wants to be. The Head has an ax to grind with the local school and naively hopes that sports is the way to channel these boys' anger. Should that fail, there are posters plastering the walls touting a man's life in the army. And that's why this film doesn't waste a scene.

Americans watching this film might have some trouble with an almost extinct dialect, but human nature does not change.

Favorite scenes 1) when he burns the pound note and 2) the romp on the dunes at Skegness.

Thank You is a great film but it only weighs in at a paltry ninety odd minutes. The novel had so much other great material which was excluded. Almost everybody I know who has read the book remembers the nicotine patch episode, but they only allude to the campaign to reduce teen smoking, which was "everything your parents told you about smoking is right." I suppose the truth.com ads about blah blah smoking isn't stupid hit too close to life imitating art.

Aaron Eckhart was fantastic as the smarmy spokesman for Big Tobacco, and William Macy outdid himself as the dim-witted Birkenstock wearing liberal senator who decorates his desk with jars of maple syrup, and who is on a crusade to expand the nanny state and make life safe for everybody -- even if that meant changing history.

My only complaint was that I had to drive to God-forsaken Bethesda to see it in the white hot core of liberal lawyer hell. It should have gone to mass release from the get-go. It's as funny as a movie can be -- almost as many laughs as Airplane! This one is worth watching a couple of times.