An Awfully Big Adventure

An Awfully Big Adventure dutifully entertains for the just under two hours the film lasts, but apart from that I did not care much for this bittersweet drama. The film's humour is quite apt, but the plot is uneven and unfocused.

Stella is a teenage girl in post-war Liverpool who is passionate about the glamorous world of the theatre. When she gets a job as stage assistant to the eccentric director Meredith Potter, her happiness seems complete, but Stella's illusions slowly crumble in the company of Liverpool's stage performers. Stella's naive mind is slow to grasp what has long been obvious to all and sundry: Meredith Potter will never fall for her, since he is homosexual.

Tragedy lies in wait when the star P. L. O'Hara returns as a guest to play Captain Hook in the production of "Peter Pan". The pragmatic Stella happily lets herself be seduced and tells O'Hara without a blush that it is Potter she loves. The ending has a slightly too abrupt surprise. O'Hara discovers that he is the father of the orphaned girl he has slept with. The consequence is tragic. We feel for O'Hara and Stella, but not enough, for neither of them is likeable enough for us to identify with them readily. That is the film's problem overall. Almost all the central characters are more or less unlikeable, or at any rate not likeable enough.