This intermittently amusing but always thoughtful adaptation of George Orwell's autobiographical novel,
Keep the Aspidistra Flying, features Richard E. Grant as Gordon Comstock, a would-be poet who supports himself as a copywriter in 1930s
London. When Comstock's first book of poetry receives a good review in the
Times Literary Supplement, he decides to cast off the trappings of what he considers to be his demeaning and predictable life (job, marriage etc.) to become a full-time poet and free man. Comstock's subsequent
free-fall into penury and degradation (remember that Orwell's nonfiction works include the terrifying
Down and Out in Paris and Lon...
Released:
1997
Rated:
R
Length:
101 mins