The opening of this did not impress me as the image sequence (new student and clearly something of an outsider arriving at Oxford) seemed dully clichéd in in its approach, compounded by the predictable music (a Coronation Anthem). But having now seen the whole film I think that it was doubtless meant very ironically given the outcomes that we saw regarding this character. The colourful, self-consciously old-fashioned script for the title and main creators then successfully suggested both aspects, successfully setting the kaleidoscopic changing tones that ran throughout the whole film.
From the start there were lovely details in the shots and framing that conveyed the nature of the main characters and their relationships. In the first tutor session, Scholarship B oy Oliver sits upright, hands in lap while (apparently) aristocratic Prescott, lounged back with casual confidence with his family connection through his mother and the tutor gave him both increased confidence and, ironically, diminished the tutor (he was ‘an admirer from afar’ of his mother i.e. like Oliver, an ‘outsider’).
The dialogue was constantly sharp often viciously so. The karaoke song set up for Oliver – which he managed to turn against Prescott, an early sign of his manipulative powers, the party guests at Oliver’s birthday party singing that ‘they had forgotten his name’ Oliver was ‘a pet’ while Felix seemed to be weirdly unaware of the effect that he had on people. I am still wondering what this was saying about his character though. It could be a range of things – genuine unawareness, a taking of his impact for granted. But for acidic dialogue the words given to Rosamund Pike as Felix’s mother Lady Elspeth were the ne plus ultra , like her remarks about the suicide of her very troubled friend Pamela which was dismissed with ‘she really will do anything for attention’. A vicious line, wonderfully delivered and Richard E. Grant really came in to his own towards the end in terms of revealing himself as a person and not a flat caricature.
In this world, virtually no character was even remotely likeable or admirable with the worst of these often being the servants, particularly the butler, who enable the aristocratic life. Richard E Grant was also superb, coming into his own towards the end of the film end.
The musical soundtrack was marvelous (and I am not referencing just the final song and sequence); the birthday party had some superb numbers.
But finally, I think, this was, in one, quite important way, about a place above all and the sort of people who inhabit it. But it played with our emotions and judgment from the very start and we were being constantly wrong-footed about what these people were actually like. Likewise, while certain specific scenes received much comment (you know the ones I mean) when they were seen in the social and dramatic context they did, in their way, make complete sense.