cocoscacao I have a friend who is absolutely the same as Withnail character, and I also had the period in life where everything was unachievable, and this film beautifully portrays such periods in life. When you don't see the brighter tommorow, when you have quirky friends, and weird stuff is happening all around you.This is brilliant comedy(?), that hasn't aged a day... The ending was both hopeful and nihilistic at the same time, which is something I can hardly imagine to see in a movie anymore.

JKlein9823 In my opinion, this is a pointless movie. I just don't get it. Am I missing something? I see other IMDb users are giving it favorable reviews.I watched this on DVD at a weekly "movie night" gathering. Not one viewer laughed throughout this entire alleged comedy. Being an American and unaccustomed to English accents, we had so much difficulty understanding the dialog, we had to turn on the closed captioning. Even that did not help. Could someone please explain the appeal of this film? I am baffled.

josecanter I like my substance abuse surrounded by dry British humour (though I'm not really a fan of Trainspotting). Withnail & I is full of narcissism, paranoia and gleeful disobedience but also a sense of despair - an understanding this lifestyle is unsustainable and self-destructive - adding the pathos that makes a comedy last. You can tell it was based on real experiences (of the writer-director, Bruce Robinson, who hasn't done that many films, but I really need to check out How to Get Ahead in Advertising), especially some of the gags about washing up. Good performances from Paul McGan, Richard E. Grant, and Richard Griffiths (who you may recognize from the Harry Potter films) give weight to a script that is narratively thin, but character-rich.

FlashCallahan London, approaching the end of the swinging sixties. Two 'resting' actors, Withnail and 'Marwood', fed up with the damp, piles of washing-up, mad drug dealers and psychotic Irishmen, decide to leave their squalid Camden flat for an idyllic holiday in the countryside, courtesy of Withnail's uncle Monty's country cottage. When they get there, it torrential rain, there's no food, and their basic survival skills turn out to be somewhat limited. Matters are not helped by the arrival of Uncle Monty, who shows an uncomfortably keen interest in Marwood...What you may have missed on the first or even second viewing (it took me at least four) is that Robinson is basically satirising every class of person, every type of educated fellow, so no one, not even 'I' comes across as the hero in this biting movie.The titular characters are people that we see every day, educated, but rich from the bank of parents, and sitting there, miserable, putting the world to rights, when they are what is wrong with society. It's a timeless tale that's been done for every demographic, every time frame, and will continue to do so for the rest of time.But what the difference this film has from others is that Robinson demands you to care for the two. With nail is an insufferable person, one you would avoid at all costs if you saw him in a bar, but here, you just want him to make a foo of himself again, you want that Irish man in the pub to punch him, but despite all this, you like/pity him.Mar wood on the other hand is the sufferer,mother one who is misunderstood, the poet, who has a voice, but no one listens, again, someone with whom you are familiar with, but then, his voice is in his head, he rarely speaks to anyone else except Withnail, and only Monty really acknowledges both of them at the same time.So in many senses, should the film be called Withnail is I?Maybe I'm looking too much into the film, but rest assured, it's deliciously funny, Grant has never been better, and it has an awful, cold bleak feel to it, the feeling you get when the old dear bites into the egg sandwich sets the tone of the film.One of the great British comedies, indispensable.