Stephen Fry writes/directs (based on Evelyn Waugh’s classic comic novel “Vile Bodies”) – a dramedy set in 1930s London that satires culture long before studio 54 or Page Six made it hip to cover the social scene. The story opens “Moulin Rouge’ style telling the story of Adam (Stephen Campbell Moore – a half Jude Law, half Ewan McGregor look alike – whose manuscript is confiscated by a Customs Officer. Adam then has to explain his predicament to Lord Monomark (Dan Ackroyd) the very newspaper tycoon who hired him to write it, and whose advance from the book, would have allowed him to marry Nina (Emily Mortimer) an aloof, high society beauty whose life revolves around “Where’s the next party?” In addition, there’s a sentimental cast of characters that include Stockard Channing and even Peter O’Toole, all flitting about in a who’s who, but who cares mode, never coming together long enough for screen time. Inevitably Fry delivers a non-cohesive (although amusing) story of nothing but simply tabloid lies “what sells is trash, not history” reminiscent of old survivors of high society. “Bright Young Things” lacks the panache of his “Gosford Park” but manages some of the style and antics that were found in his previous work on Oscar Wilde – “Wilde.”
