John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus Seven begat The Big Chill, which in turn begat this British variation. In this early-’90s dramedy, a group of old Cambridge chums who used to perform in a musical comedy troupe together reunite a decade after college for a New Year’s Eve celebration at the country estate owned by Peter (Stephen Fry), the group’s wealthy aristocrat. Some have gone on to showbiz success, some have not, but all have weighty baggage. The friends are played by such stars as Kenneth Branagh (who also directed), Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, and Imelda Staunton; many of them actually had been members of the Cambridge Footlights troupe. Yank comic Rita Rudner, who co-wrote the screenplay, gives herself the most unflattering role (she’s a shrill American sitcom star, married to Branagh’s character, a self-loathing alcoholic who writes her hit show).
Filled with the sort of singalongs and jokey patter one would expect from a reunion of show folk, the film seems doubly nostalgic today, not just for the early ’80s (when the characters were in school), but for the early ’90s, when the film was made. It was a time when Branagh and Thompson were still married and were still British cinema’s It couple, a time when Fry and Laurie were still young comics on the rise. Even Peter’s dark secret seems quaintly early-’90s; at least, its last-minute revelation isn’t allowed to linger long enough to spoil the fun.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W6JKXYxIUQ]