“Withnail & I” doesn’t really have much of a plot to rely on. It merely portrays a couple of days in the lives of two piss poor, unemployed, drunken and luckless “actors” as they decide that they are fed up with city life and that they need a couple of days in the country to recuperate. This is, of course, a terrible idea, as the cottage they’ve borrowed from Withnail’s Uncle Monty is utterly dilapidated, the villagers are unfriendly and frighteningly weird, and they themselves are unable to do anything without consuming large amounts of alcohol and/or drugs.
This is a relatively lo-fi movie, being buildt almost on witty dialogue (some of which was hard to understand, though, as drugged-up Londoners tend to be sloppy with the diction, and seemingly inbred and alcoholised countrymen are even worse) and eccentric characters, such as Uncle Monty the insane poofter, and Danny the deranged dealer. However, this was enough to get me invested in the characters (at least Monty, Withnail and I), and the ending made me kinda wistful. Which is always a good thing.
I think I’d recommend this movie to everyone who’d like to see a more realistically silly Monty Python, as this is what it most resembles. (Fun trivia: The movie is supposed to take place in the autumn of ‘69, i.e. around the time when MPFC was first aired in the UK.) 9.0/10.
Oh, and it had a great soundtrack, too. Lots of trippy Hendrix songs.
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