The Party

Janet has just been appointed to a shadow ministerial post, and she and her husband Bill are hosting a small gathering of close friends at their London home to mark the occasion. The guests arrive expecting a celebration, among them Janet's friend April with her German partner Gottfried, the couple Martha and Jinny, and the banker Tom, who turns up without his wife and in a visibly agitated state. Over the course of the evening, a series of revelations unsettles the assembled company, exposing strains in the relationships and throwing the convictions the friends hold about themselves and each other into disarray.

Sally Potter wrote and directed the film, which sits between Ginger & Rosa and The Roads Not Taken in the list of features she has directed. The cast includes Patricia Clarkson, Cherry Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas, Bruno Ganz, Timothy Spall and Emily Mortimer. Christopher Sheppard and Kurban Kassam produced the British-Danish production, which runs seventy-one minutes and took about six million dollars worldwide.

Audiences received it moderately: on IMDb it holds 6.6/10 from roughly 23,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.3/10 from 621 votes. A film critics' rating of 7/10 from 162 reviews places it somewhat above those audience scores.