Rating: PG13
Genre:
Comedy Drama
Theatrical Release: 08/03/1990(USA)
Release Date: 02/14/2006
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 99 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Criterion
The debut film from writer-director
Whit Stillman etches a sophisticated comic portrait of New York debutante society at the twilight of the 1980s. Set during the Christmas season, the film is told from the vantage point of Tom Townsend (
Edward Clements), a self-professed proletarian radical who stumbles into the social sphere of a group of well-off Upper East Side twentysomethings calling themselves the SFRP (or Sally Fowler Rat Pack, named in honor of a frequent party hostess). The group includes Nick (
Christopher Eigeman), an acidic misanthrope; sweet-natured
Jane Austen acolyte Audrey (
Carolyn Farina); Charlie (
Taylor Nichols), a tongue-tied bumbler secretly in love with Audrey; and femme fatale Cynthia (
Isabel Gillies). Quickly, Tom, who comes from much more humble beginnings, finds himself caught in the middle of the group. Audrey even develops a crush on him, but Tom is still reeling from a broken relationship with renowned man-eater Serena (
Elizabeth Thompson), a peripheral member of the SFRP. It all leads to a romantic climax at the Southampton vacation home of Nick's womanizing arch-enemy Rick von Sloneker (
Will Kempe).
~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide