Film
The Party
- Director
- Sally Potter
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 71 mins
Sally Potter‘s first film in five years eschews the experimentalism for which she’s renowned in favour of brisk (71 minutes, clock-watchers), accessible comedy set among bourgeois metropolitan lefty folk.
Kristin Scott Thomas has just been appointed Shadow Minister for Health (it’s never mentioned, but she’s clearly a Labour politician) and is throwing a party to celebrate. While she prepares the grub, hubby Bill (Timothy Spall) is enjoying a bit of a sulk as he nurses a surprise to be sprung later on. Then the guests start to show up: a catty American (Patricia Clarkson) with her touchy-feely aromatherapist partner (Bruno Ganz), a lesbian couple (Emily Mortimer, Cherry Jones) and a coke-snorting banker (Cillian Murphy), who’s mysteriously packing a gun. Social meltdown ensues, with fine performances all round – especially from Clarkson, who hurls many a priceless insult at the wretched Ganz as he spews endless New Age drivel (“Tickle an aromatherapist and you find a fascist”).
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