Quicklinks
Top Links
trailers and videosfull cast and crewtriviaofficial sitesmemorable quotesOverview
main detailscombined detailsfull cast and crewcompany creditsAwards & Reviews
user reviewsexternal reviewsawardsuser ratingsparents guidemessage boardPlot & Quotes
plot summarysynopsisplot keywordsmemorable quotesDid You Know?
triviagoofssoundtrack listingcrazy creditsalternate versionsmovie connectionsFAQOther Info
box office/businessrelease datesfilming locationstechnical specsliterature listingsNewsDeskPromotional
taglines trailers and videos posters photo galleryExternal Links
showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clipsReviews & Ratings for
American Friends More at IMDbPro »
| Page 1 of 2: | [1] [2] ![[Next]](http://i.media-imdb.com/f86.gif){kind=small} |
| Index | 11 reviews in total |
14 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
A wonderful and gentle film, 6 January 2000
Author:
Tommy-60 from New York
Michael Palin shows that he has grown beyond his Monty Python days, but he has not left them far behind. His droll portrayal of an Oxford fellow, one who must avoid marriage at all costs, is sheer delight. He meets and cannot avoid falling in love with an American woman, but it is the depth and sincerity of his love that surprises him and us. The cinematography is stunning in Switzerland, and all dark days and wooden paneling in Oxford, in both cases conveying a metaphor for Palin's interior struggle. Wonderful and gentle.
11 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
An excellent film about 19th century university life., 12 July 2002
Author:
lucas-38 from England
There is plenty of atmosphere in this film. It portrays the conflict that occurred in the universities of the day (1866) between the traditional and the newer blood that was required to bring the universities into the modern world. It is almost an allegory showing the old world (Oxford) as it battles against the influence of new ideas represented by the new world (the 'American Friends'). Michael Palin is excellent in the role of Mr. Ashby. Throughout the film he portrays in a wonderful manner the bewilderment of facing the challenge of coming to terms with new order represented by Mr. Sime (Alfred Molina) in the challenge for the presidency of the college. In the end he follows his heart (and probably his head as well) and leaves the old world to its devices. Well worth watching.
12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
A sensitive and well-judged period drama from Palin, 30 July 2004
Author:
bob the moo
Rev Francis Ashby is a bookish and retiring don at Oxford who
reluctantly gives in to his colleagues insistences that he go for a
holiday. Enjoying the peace and quiet in the Alps he is initially
disturbed by the arrival of a group including an American woman
(Caroline) and her teenager ward (Elinor). However, acting as their
guide when the rest of the group returns to the lodgings, Ashby starts
to fall for the darling Elinor but, after slight bonding, he is called
back immediately due to the failing health of the college president.
When his American friends come to Oxford to visit, their arrival throws
the college into a tizzy and he finds himself in competition with
others for not only the role of president but also for the hearts of
his friends.
Watching this film for the third time since its release in the early
nineties I decided to review it and, looking at the title page was
astonished (yes, really) to see that only 106 people have voted on it.
I know this is not a total representation of how many people have
actually seen it but I was surprised how such a well-known film appears
to be underseen (although it may say more about the demographics of
those that use this site most). This is not to imply that it is an
excellent film but it is a well paced film that is enjoyable on its own
terms. For those expecting great sentiment you will be let down,
likewise those expecting a Merchant Ivory film, or a very comic film
but those open to a nicely sensitive little tale that is slightly comic
but more enjoyable for being restraining and being very true to the
Englishness of its subjects and the polite behaviour of the period.
Based on his own grandfather's diaries, Palin has done a good job as
both writer and director to capture the period and deal with the
subject in a way that is unshowy but not stale, sensitive and patient
but never dull and comic without ever being so crude as to actually
make you laugh out loud. It isn't fantastic of course but it is nicely
lowkey and it is enjoyable for what it is. As actor Palin continues
this good work and he delivers a very restrained and shy performance –
even more amazing when you think this is a Python! Booth and Alvarado
are both very attractive and restrained at the same time and effective
if not memorable. Molina, currently playing a superhero baddie, plays a
'baddie' of another sort here and he pitches his character well to be
dastardly while still keeping within the period. Support from Jones,
Firth, Eddison and others is good and they all keep to the period and
the material yet.
Overall this is not an amazing film or even a really good one, but what
it is is a well written period drama that is delivered well enough to
prevent it being dull and it comes over as a nice little film that is
pleasing to watch even if it never sets the screen on fire. An
undervalued little drama that is a well handled, very personal film
from Palin who does very well in all three of his roles.
10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Palin at his very best - and for once he's not joking, 18 September 2006
Author:
trimmerb1234 from London
I confess that I've never found Michael Palin very funny. His desperate
mugging in "A Fish Called Wanda" marked a particular low. And his many,
many travel documentaries have at times stretched to breaking point his
ability to say something interesting about his journeys. But, and
against type, his finest work as performer and writer is "American
Friends" and it is very fine indeed.
Based on the true story of his great grandfather, it is a wonderful,
gently comic evocation of the claustrophobic lives - and obligatory
bachelorhood - of 1860's Oxford University academics (the repressive
world which spawned Lewis Carrol). A wonderfully rich, gently comic
performance too by veteran Robert Eddison as the dying head of the
college, surrounded at the end simply by his college fellows. Entirely
devoted to academic excellence and religiosity, only occasional male
horseplay for some ever interrupted their high-minded bachelor lives.
The natural candidate to take over as head of the college, the Palin
character, thus seemed fated to live and die within its confines just
as had his predecessor. Reluctantly persuaded to take a short walking
summer holiday alone in the (beautifully filmed) Swiss Alps, suddenly
into his late bachelor life comes Womanhood, Beauty - and Love - in the
shapes of a middle-aged American lady and her young ward. Again a
wonderful poignant dignified performance by Connie Booth; her young
ward's youth and beauty making her suddenly aware that her own looks
and prospects are now both very much on the downward slope.
An inauthentic jarring note was Alfred Molina's portrayal of Palin's
academic rival; so openly leering, crude and dissolute, it was
difficult to imagine that he could have coexisted with his high-minded
fellows - unless they were so very unworldly that they failed to
understand him.
Curiously very reminiscent indeed of "Goodbye Mr Chips" (1935),
arguably American Friends is a far better film; subtle, gentle and
beautiful. Palin was a student at Oxford and there is affection,
respect and an intense attention to period feel in his portrayal of the
character and the place.
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
A well-made, worthwhile film., 19 July 1999
Author:
Sophie-15 from Detroit, Michigan, USA
This film, based on the journals of Michael Palin's great-grandfather, is of course humorous, but also teaches a valuable lesson. The script is fantastic, the camera work is beautiful, the acting is superb, and the story, while entertaining, is also quite deep. A must-see for anyone looking for a good film.
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
A wonderfully subtle look at love in period costumes, 14 February 2002
Author:
Lisa Quick (lquick) from New Orleans
A lovely, thoughtful look at love between a professor and a young woman. Has a nice sense of period without stuffiness or artifice, good humorous observations, nice subtle acting. A great alternative to those overstuffed, melodramatic Merchant-Ivory type films. Also check out Palin's "The Missionary"; it's a little more broad but quite funny, and Maggie Smith is a treasure.
6 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Michael Palin best acting role., 3 January 2002
Author:
cmyklefty from Philadelphia
Remembering watching American Friends, this is the first time I see Michael Palin at a more serious role. I completely enjoy watching this film. Palin plays an Oxford professor who falls for an American woman (Connie Booth) and her daughter (Trini Alvarado). A wonderful acted film and the scenery is breathtaking to watch. Well worth the effort to see.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Pedantic Python drops out of school ?, 30 April 2012
Author:
aethomson from New Zealand
The "child mentality" within each one of us clings to tradition. If you
can remember a happy childhood, you are probably recalling a time when
you instinctively distrusted change - because "change" might mean a
"change for the worse". By contrast, in those teenage years you
welcomed change (it's something to do with hormones). Will this
colourless nineteenth century academic Francis Ashby (Michael Palin)
escape from the "grown-up childhood" of suffocating university
tradition - including celibacy for most of the faculty (they're called
"fellows")? The auspices are not encouraging. Everyone in the system,
including the Rev Ashby (yes, he's entitled to become an Anglican
vicar, if he should fail as a "don") - they're all so self-satisfied.
Nothing needs to change, because everything is perfect the way it is.
You begin to wonder: How did this hidebound institution survive into
the twentieth century? Why is the name "Oxford" still synonymous with
the highest standard of intellectual achievement? When did they stop
thinking that the study of ancient Greek and Latin was the be-all and
end-all? The answer is that Oxford did change, but slowly and
reluctantly. In 2004 New Zealander John Hood was appointed CEO (correct
title: "Vice-Chancellor") of the University, with a clear brief: the
whole place was badly in need of another shake-up. The details are in
Wikipedia. Hood got quite a lot of "reforming" done, but after three
years of hammering away at entrenched opposition and obstruction, he'd
had enough - he wouldn't be seeking a renewal of his 5-year contract.
Much of the energy in the movie "American Friends" went into securing
its accuracy and authenticity, almost as a sociohistorical study; so
any viewer given to impatience might wonder if this isn't some sort of
documentary - enlivened with a modest story line. If you never went to
Harvard, you might wonder what a premium university looks like -
inside. Thanks to WGBH television, we can watch Professor Michael
Sandel lecturing on political ethics to a large auditorium full of very
sharp young minds (they're all supposed to have read the challenging
course texts). So what was uni like 150 years ago? - it was different!
The movie is a test of your imagination as a viewer - can you think
your way back into this artificial world of fuddy-duddy pedagogical
privilege, a world that did actually exist? There's humour, but it
mainly consists of the dry wit and in-jokes of a community of
cleverness, cut off from the crudities of the "real world".
The women (who are after all the eponymous "American Friends") are
underutilised. Connie Booth ("Caroline Hartley") manages to engage in
some dialogue, but the lovely Trini Alvarado ("Elinor") is given very
little to do (except model Victorian frocks). Apart from perving at a
distant male bather through binoculars, the most interesting thing she
does in the movie is to fall into a lake, revealing a glimpse of ankles
that are otherwise concealed under all those skirts and petticoats. But
isn't all this authentic? - yes it is. A young lady was supposed to be
decorously genteel - yes I know! But it takes a mental effort to
realise that this code of female passivity was an essential aspect of
an era that also featured Florence Nightingale, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
George Eliot, Ada Augusta King, Annie Besant and Victoria Woodhull.
Enter the villain. The villain is (of course) change, reform, progress
- symbolised by "Oliver Syme", a role nicely understated by Alfred
Molina. It's no surprise that Syme might have been considered by your
typical puritan Victorian as a "bit of a bounder" - not entirely
reliable in his relations with the fairer sex. Just like Ashby and the
other college tutors, Syme is a "fellow" - required to remain a
celibate bachelor, presumably for the rest of his life. The elderly
college President is on his last legs, and Syme is Ashby's main rival
in the forthcoming election for a new President. But will a whiff of
scandal discredit either of these candidates? Ashby met Caroline and
Elinor when he was on holiday in Switzerland. Now they come to visit
him in Oxford. But surely it's all completely innocent! Ashby is rather
taken by these ladies, but which one does he have the stronger feelings
for? And which one has the stronger feelings for him? Nineteenth
century decorum enables the movie to keep us guessing - or at least it
tries to. And which impulse will win in the end? - Ashby's ambition to
become college President, or these unfamiliar stirrings of the heart?
Meanwhile they're putting on an amateur production of "King Lear" -
which doesn't seem to have much to do with the main plot. One of the
people that Ashby met in Switzerland was an Oxford physician, Dr Weeks
(Alun Armstrong). Weeks is trying to ingratiate himself with Ashby
because he wants to get his son into the college. If the young chap is
not up to it (the oral entrance exam requires the memorisation of a
hefty chunk of Latin), will Ashby, as chairman of the entrance panel,
turn Dr Weeks into a dangerous enemy? The bottom line: You'll enjoy
this movie? It depends. If you prefer a leisurely 10-part TV adaptation
of a Dickens novel to an overcooked two-hour movie version, then
"American Friends" is probably for you. But you'll need to be paying
attention. Things are happening even when nothing appears to be
happening. I liked it.
3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
The view from college, 1 October 2006
Author:
paul2001sw-1 (paul2001sw@yahoo.co.uk) from Saffron Walden, UK
Set about one hundred years ago, in Europe and England, this tale of repressed love initially feels like a re-working of 'A Room with a View', with the list of who fell for whom slightly re-arranged. But its portrait of Victorian England seems deliberately exaggerated: a woman can't speak to a college fellow without ruining his reputation, it seems, or talk to a man after dark without being arrested as a whore. Yet there's a charm here that grows on you, in spite of its obviousness. What is perhaps a shame is the missed opportunity presented by the fact that there hero's opponent (in a college election) is an advocate of evolution, which by implication the hero opposes: but the film does not force its favourite to defend his creed. I liked odd bits of casting: Alfred Molina playing sexy, for example, and Roger Lloyd-Peck (Trigger in 'Only Fools and Horses') playing posh. But the script itself, though cute, could have done with some of the same originality.
2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Two Yanks At Oxford, 1 October 2006
Author:
writers_reign from London, England
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This was screened late last night on the BBC and provided another chance to see this excellent film written by and starring Michael Palin who based the story on his own great-grandfather who left Oxford to marry a woman he met whilst on holiday. Public School/Universities are, of course, something the British film industry does very well, indeed the Original (1951) The Browning Version with Michael Redgrave is one of the finest British films of all time and American Friends makes a fine addition to the ranks. The mores of 1860s Oxford are beautifully captured and full of details and the late Robert Eddison, primarily a stage actor, brings his mellifluous second-only-to-Gielgud voice fully to bear in all his scenes. Palin also captures to perfection the product of years of conditioning on the verge of becoming set in his ways and then undergoing a life-changing meeting. There is strong support all round with Connie Booth turning in a just-right reading of a maturing woman daring to hope for a bite at the cherry and hiding her disappointment and Alfred Molina more or less phoning in his standard cad about campus. Excellent.
| Page 1 of 2: | [1] [2] |
Related Links
| Plot summary | Ratings | Awards |
| Newsgroup reviews | External reviews | Plot keywords |
| Main details | Your user reviews | Your vote history |
Copyright © 1990-2013
IMDb.com, Inc.
Conditions of Use | Privacy Policy | Interest-Based Ads
An 
company.