In classic dark
comedy territory The Party explores life in that most artistically ignored of demographics: the liberal London metropolitan elite. The titular party is held at the house
of Janet (played brilliantly by Kristen Scott Thomas) who is celebrating being made the shadow Minister for Health by throwing a dinner party for her husband
(a curmudgeonly Timothy Spall) and close friends by doing a 'Margaret
Thatcher' and demonstrating that she can still make a Vol-au-Vent. It all
rapidly goes down-hill from there as the guests slowly unravel before our eyes.
Somehow, despite its
relatively short run time, a whole range of interesting themes are touched upon
and explored all underpinned by utter self-righteous
narcissism of the party goers. Throughout the dialogue is punctuated by the kind of middle class
liberal do-gooder pronouncements that you would hear at any North London dinner
party. What is fascinating is how absurd the characters sound as they expound
their liberal progressive policy views whilst being completely unable to apply those same principles with those closest to them. Inevitably all reap the consequences of this behaviour in darkly comic ways.
The sheer breadth
and seriousness of topics touched upon is impressive, we have lesbian
relationship troubles, children, terminal illness, alternative medicine,
affairs, emasculation, gender equality and even an immoral banker (another great performance by Cillian Murphy) thrown into
the mix. Along the way we discover that holding progressive liberal views doesn't necessarily automatically qualify you for sainthood despite the arrogance of the individuals concerned.
All of which is filmed in glorious black and white and framed by a fantastic music
soundtrack. The only real downside is that the movie sells itself short with its length,
I was enjoying this movie so much I was genuinely disappointed when it ended.
As a member of the
London liberal elite it is quite disturbing to actually see a movie which you
can directly relate to, I have been to dinner parties like that one,
admittedly without quite the level of drama, but nevertheless the conversations felt familiar as did the hypocrisy . The only concern is that this
movie will only work for those that this strikes a chord with, an elitist liberal movie for the liberal elite perhaps, and certainly
the best film I have seen this year.
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