Friends & Crocodiles (2005) (TV)

Director:

Stephen Poliakoff

Writer:

Stephen Poliakoff (writer)

Release Date:

25 February 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

"Friends and Crocodiles" traces the changing relationship of maverick entrepreneur Paul Reynolds and his assistant Lizzie Thomas over a period of 20 years from the beginnings of the Thatcher era to the bursting of the dot.com bubble.

Plot Keywords:

Crocodile | Secretary | Entrepreneur | Mentor | Businesswoman

Cast

Damian Lewis	...	Paul Reynolds
Jodhi May	...	Lizzie Thomas
Robert Lindsay	...	William Sneath
Patrick Malahide	...	Anders
Eddie Marsan	...	Butterworth
Allan Corduner	...	Marcus
Chris Larkin	...	Redfern
John Warnaby	...	Coyle
Paul Hickey	...	Albert Brother
Tim Plester	...	Albert Junior
Isabel Brook	...	Angela
Sophie Hunter	...	Christine
Sasha Hardway	...	Young Rachel
Shannon Murray	...	Older Rachel
Harry Melling	...	Young Oliver

Also Known As:

Untitled Stephen Poliakoff Project (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Broughton Castle, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

The title refers to a baby crocodile that main character Paul owns. Paul says he thinks something can be learned from crocodiles because they survived the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Quotes:

William Sneath: Paul collects people that interest him - and then lets them do whatever they want. And now he's collected you.
Lizzie Thomas: No. I'm just the secretary. That is quite different.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Gideon's Daughter (2005) (TV)

Perhaps I'm Going off Poliakoff...

I can usually appreciate a good Poliakoff TV drama, but this one left me cold and even disinterested. I normally enjoy Damian Lewis's work as well, but his rather detached Paul left me not caring at all about what became of him; the quirky and enigmatic smile became irritating and more importantly, conveyed nothing at all. I felt that Jodhi May held the whole thing together; she seemed to have been written as the point-of-view character through whose eyes we see the ebb and flow of Paul's life, whilst at the same time we observe her rise and rise in the business world, something the self-sabotaging Paul could only envy.

Poliakoff generally sets his stories against a backdrop of historical social and political change. In 'Friends & Crocodiles' the social change covers the time from the hedonistic 1980's to the bursting of the dot com bubble. For me, I felt somewhat irrelevant as a viewer as the narrative dipped in and out of events in time. I believe that Poliakoff was too ambitious in attempting to create a cohesive story covering this time span in only 110 minutes of screen time. The reasons for the shortness of story-telling time may well have been financial - or whatever - but for me, this movie just didn't work, and in the end I didn't care what happened to any of the characters.

I really, really love Stephen Poliakoff's work, but I hope 'Friends & Crocodiles' remains the sole exception.