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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I don't give tens easily, but this film just grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go. Next morning and I'm still with them. Right, let's put something right - I see review after review talking about the Blitz in London. This is based in Yorkshire - nowhere near London, but still receiving bombs, right? The accents are different, the architecture is different and the whole point of the story is that it's a touring Shakespearian company, not based in London. They are taking the bard to those in the rest of the country who are also suffering. Really!! The cast is stellar, not a dud among them. The two leads, Finney and Courtney have long been among the gods in British Acting, since the 60s I believe, and can do no wrong. They fit their roles like handmade kid gloves. Contrary to one review, I didn't catch them 'acting' at all, I felt they lived and breathed every second, and any exaggeration was totally in keeping with the character. Devoted dressers are the stuff of legends in theatre lore, and Courtney's character captures that perfectly. Finney is the epitome of the Knight of the theatre and even his poor wife doesn't wait for him following the harrowing, nail- biting cliffhanger of a performance. The SM who has quietly yearned for him for 20 years is perfect. I'm not going to list names and credits, to me the film was beautiful and of a quality that we see all too rarely nowadays, as making a huge profit takes priority to fine, delicate and gripping acting.

Acting with a capital A is the name of the game here, but of course that can be a lot of fun sometimes. Albert Finney plays an aging, senile Shakespearian actor during the Luftwaffe bombings of England of WWII. He clearly doesn't have much left in him and is nearly insane, but, man, when he goes on stage, he can play any part you ask him to the fullest. His dresser, that is the person who assists him in getting ready for the performances, is played by Tom Courtenay, a pretty obviously homosexual man with theatrical tendencies of his own, though he couldn't actually bare to go out on stage (he makes an announcement at one point to the audience and can barely speak over his stage fright). Without Courtenay, Finney wouldn't get anywhere. He is, as they say, the man behind the curtain. Most of the film takes place on a night that Finney's Shakespearian company is performing King Lear. Most of the best stuff in the film, in my opinion, takes place before the actual play starts, with Courtenay trying to coax Finney into getting ready while the rest of his company worries that he won't possibly be able to make it out on stage. And the end of the film, after the play, is quite brilliant, as well. The actual play part is really well done, too. Most of the film's actions take place off the side of the stage, where Courtenay watches and sometimes helps with sound effects. Both Finney and Courtenay are brilliant (I've often said that I'm not a fan of Finney, but he's brilliant here) and both were nominated for Oscars (and lost to Robert Duvall, deservedly). The film is both funny and emotionally moving. Ronald Harwood's screenplay, based on his own play, is brilliant, and Peter Yates' direction is wonderfully subtle. The film itself was nominated for Best Picture, and it seems to be the most forgotten of the five from 1983. It deserves to be remembered.

The many other comments about the film say it all - just like to add that we showed it last week to around 30 at our Community Cinema, and it got an overall average score of 8.6. We'd 100% recommend it, then, for today's audiences, especially if they can see it on a real cinema screen, and can talk about it with others afterwards, as our audience did.The sheer power of the acting performances by the whole troupe was incredible and quite spellbinding. Of course, Finney and Courtenay were truly the stars. but everybody was thoroughly well cast. For our afternoon audience, the majority of whom are "senior citizens", the fact that the plot could be followed with such ease because of the clarity of speech and the wonderful non-techy use of camera and sound was a great influenceHow delightful, many said, to see a really great film that's British: still not dated twenty years on: not full filled with blood & guts: not confusing because of bob-about-all-over-the-place camera shots, and back and forth through time story lines: no seedy sex scenes. Such views were even uttered by some who were younger.

Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay are brilliant as Sir and his Dresser. Of course the play is brilliant to begin with and nothing can compare with the immediacy and collegiality of theatre, and I think you listen better in theatre; but on the screen we become more intimate, we're 'up-close' more than we are in the theatre, we witness subtle changes in expression, we "see" better as well as listen. Both the play and the movie are wondrous: moving, intelligent, illuminating--of the backstage story of the company, of historical context, of the two main characters, and of the parallel characters in "Lear" itself. If you cannot get to see it in a theatre (I don't imagine it's produced much these days) then, please, do yourself a favor, and get the video.