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      Play for Today (Abigail's Party)

      1977 List
      Reviews 82% 500+ Ratings Audience Score Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (4) Critics Reviews
      Nancy Banks-Smith Guardian Exhilarating but it does produce loose ends, blind alleys and unanswered questions. Jun 26, 2019 Full Review Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader Highly recommended, but you should go prepared to squirm along with the host, hostess, and guests. Jan 1, 2000 Full Review David N. Butterworth La Movie Boeuf Demis Roussos, anyone? Rated: 3.5/4 Mar 5, 2017 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 3/5 Jun 11, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (35) audience reviews
      ej r Lmfao this is a masterpiece. A perfect performance from everyone in a perfectly offbalance carousel of neighbors. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/24 Full Review Audience Member Abigail's Party: 2 out of 10. Abigail's Party is a poorly lit (especially first half) extremely stagy TV show (basically a filmed play.) Highly regarded by some critics but at close to two hours with five very unpleasant people it hardly ranks as entertainment. The main character Beverly reminds one of Peg from Married with Children but with no Al to provide the counter pointing laughs she remains strangely unchallenged throughout. In fact, the description of Abigail's Party as a comedy is a bit of a puzzler as this is drama writ large. A true character exercise only a stage actor could love. While insightful into the desperation of some of the middle class of England, countless movies and shows have exposed middle-class foibles with better results. Even a half-hour sitcom like "Keeping Up Appearances" covers the same ground more completely and with many more laughs. Truth be told these people would be miserable no matter what class they were in and like a trapped guest I was looking to leave Abigail's Party as soon as I could. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member As the characters converse, their behavior suggests that they have unspoken issues and quiet reservations that add not only suspense to the film but a mysterious depth to the people in it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Bitterness expressed. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review simon d Mike Leigh often produces a very funny result in his depiction of England's first-world problems. Usually the characters are the gems of his films but, in this they are incredibly annoying. If you are English then you will know somebody like these which I think makes it even more painful watching. I usually love awkward comedy but this is a little too over the top from the hostess character. All the same it is well worth a watch if you can bear it. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I can't really add anything to what has been said already by anyone that's seen it. It's just perfect. Which is why we're still talking about this play 36 years later. If you haven't watched it, you really should. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

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      Movie Info

      Director
      Mike Leigh