A millionaire past his prime and his young wife arrive in Kenya circa 1940 to find that the other affluent British expatriates are living large as the homefront gears up for war. They are busy swapping partners, doing drugs, and attending lavish parties and horse races. She begins a torrid affair with one of the bon vivants, and her husband finds out and confronts them. The husband and wife decide to break up peacefully, but the bon vivant is murdered and all the evidence points to the husband.
Greta Scacchi
Diana, Lady Broughton
Charles Dance
Josslyn Hay
Joss Ackland
'Jock' Delves Broughton
Sarah Miles
Alice de Janzé
John Hurt
Gilbert Colville
Trevor Howard
Jack Soames
Geraldine Chaplin
Nina Soames
Murray Head
Lizzie
Ray McAnally
Morris
Susan Fleetwood
Gladys, Lady Delamer
Catherine Neilson
Lady June Carberry
Alan Dobie
Sir Walter Harrigan
Hugh Grant
Hugh
Gregor Fisher
McPherson
Jacqueline Pearce
Idina Soltau
Tristram Jellinek
Land Agent
Tim Myers
Raymond de Trafford
Sean Mathias
Gerald Portman
Ron Donachie
Club Manager
Douglas Chege
Kiptobe
Wensley Pithey
Sheridan
Stephan Chase
Carberry
Louis Mahoney
Abdullah
Susannah Harker
Young Girl
Amanda Parkin
Nancy Wirewater
Olivier Pierre
Kaplan
David Quilter
Poppy
John Rees
Baines
Anthony Benson
Fox
Clare Travers-Deacon
Muffin-Faced Woman
Nigel Le Vaillant
Handsome Reporter
Basil Whybray
Spotty Reporter
Gary Beadle
Servant
Bill Moody
Jury Foreman
John Darrell
Registrar
Ilario Bisi-Pedro
African Policeman
Edwin Mahinda
Boy Waiter
Seipal Ngojine
Maasai Warrior
Pilip Saitoti
Maasai Warrior
Director, Screenplay
Michael Radford
Novel
James Fox
Screenplay
Jonathan Gems
November 2, 2023
6
"Alice" (Sarah Miles) moves to colonial Kenya with her elderly husband "Jock" (Joss Ackland) and soon she is enjoying the social whirl that is their unfettered lifestyle. She falls in easily with the great and the good - even befriending the all-but-mute "Colvile" (John Hurt) but it's not that dalliance that worries her husband, though. It's one with the debonaire Earl of Erroll (Charles Dance) and soon a rather embarrassing/cuckolding menage à trois gradually emerges. When the latter man is found brutally slaughtered, a court case ensues but will it convict the culprit? It's speculatively based on real events and the photography is stunning, as is the general aesthetic of the drama. The film itself, though, is all rather underwhelming. A solid cast of British stage and screen actors cannot turn the really pedestrian screenplay into anything that remotely depicts the complex, hedonistic and entitled lives these people lived amidst the abject poverty of the local population. I reckon Joss Ackland is the only one who emerges with any credit here - and that's largely because he has probably the better part, especially as the plot thickens - but as for the rest of this, it's all just a disappointing critique on spoiled people, drug abuse and over-indulgence that I found a bit too sterile.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$5,300,000.00
Revenue:
$0.00