Withnail & I
Short description
Withnail & I follows two unemployed actors sharing a squalid London flat in the late 1960s. Withnail is sharp-tongued, cynical and dependent on drink; his friend Marwood is more anxious and subdued. Both drift between auditions that never come, the unemployment office and the pub, with little money and even less food. Hoping to escape the city, they borrow a country cottage belonging to Withnail's wealthy uncle Monty, only to find the countryside cold, wet and unwelcoming. The locals are hostile, supplies are scarce, and the trip strains their friendship. Monty's unexpected arrival adds further awkwardness, particularly for Marwood.
The film was Bruce Robinson's directorial debut and the first of four features he directed, followed by How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Jennifer Eight and The Rum Diary. Robinson also wrote the screenplay. Richard E. Grant plays Withnail and Paul McGann plays Marwood, with Richard Griffiths as Monty, Ralph Brown as Danny, Michael Elphick as Jake and Daragh O'Malley as the Irishman.
Released in June 1987, the British-Canadian production took about 2 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.5/10 from around 52,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.2/10 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 7.9/10 from 86 reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- In 1968, Bruce Robinson played Benvolio in Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet." The director, being gay, constantly tried to seduce him. Robinson used his habits and manner of speech in his film, endowing Uncle Monty, who attempts to seduce Marwood, with them.
- The name "Whitnail" comes from Robinson's childhood. It's a local guy named Jonathan Whitnail who crashed into a police car in the parking lot near a pub.
- Bruce Robinson's screenplay is largely autobiographical. He based it on his unpublished novel of the same name from 1969, in which he implied himself under the name "Marwood." However, in the film, this is an unnamed character, "I." The name Marwood flashes before the viewer only once, in the address on a telegram.
- Bruce Robinson received a token sum of one pound from Harrison's company for the screenplay, £80,000 for directing, and £30,000 for additional filming.
- Withnail is played by a staunch teetotaler, Richard E. Grant. Only once did he drink a glass of vodka in one go for the sake of authenticity, after which he immediately became intoxicated. McGann and Robinson later told him that the footage had never seen anything funnier.
- Daniel Day-Lewis could have starred in the film.
- There were quite a few contenders for the role of Withnail, including Kenneth Branagh, Edward Tudor-Pol, and the director's friend Bill Nighy. However, the final choice fell on Richard E. Grant, a British actor of Swazi origin, who, on the director's advice, was supposed to lose weight before filming.
- The director immediately invited Paul McGann to play Marwood, his onscreen alter ego, but after auditions, he rejected him due to a strong Liverpool accent. But since Bruce Robinson couldn't find anyone else for the role, and Paul McGann had meanwhile practically gotten rid of the accent, he was the one who embodied the image of Marwood in the film.
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