h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This one popped into my head because I tried to get a copy of it on DVD recently. It isn't on DVD. And maybe loads of people have seen it or remember it quite well, but it seemed to me to be a film dropping out of the reckoning, where I seem to remember it on a few 'Films of the 90s' lists run at the end of that decade.

One of the main reasons why I think this is such a brilliant film is because of David Thewlis's performance in it (I think he won an award for it at Cannes). Anyone who has only ever seen Thewlis in the Hollywood tosh he's gone on to make since, should watch this if only to get why he actually is one of the best British actors around. He is stunning in it, absolutely mesmerising, very intense but stopping just the right distance short of chewing up the scenery and overdoing it. I think Lesley Sharp is also fantastic in it (a horribly underrated actress who was never better than in this).

Aside from the acting, the script (if there was a script, given that this is a Mike Leigh film) is jaw-droppingly good (that's another reason why I think this film shouldn't be forgotten, because around the time it wasn't even necessarily second to 'Withnail and I' in terms of quotable lines)

I think Mike Leigh's films are brilliant most of the time, but whereas there is a degree of redemption in 'Life Is Sweet' or 'Secrets and Lies', there's nothing of the sort here - it's bleak and tragic, but rather in the way that 'Hamlet' is bleak and tragic, in that the language compensates: here too you watch as the central figure tries to articulate his way out of something tormenting him beyond all reason (and you're left entirely unsure what that is).

Anyway, I'd be interested to know if anyone else thinks this film is as good as I do (personally, it's well up on my top ten of all time)

I like Mike Leigh but admittedly I've never seen this one..

I'm a big fan of Mike Leigh, but I found this one very difficult to watch - in fact I didn't make it all the way through. It harks back to his very early work, particularly his first film - Bleak Moments. David Thewlis was very, very scary in this film.

Oh, *hugely* scary - but that's one of the things I really like about it!