Rent Look Back in Anger (1989)

Jimmy is very very angry - all the time. - Look Back in Anger review by NK

I'm sure this play made a huge impact on post-war audiences when it was first performed, but I couldn't watch it for more than half an hour. I had previously tried the film version with Richard Burton, which starts with him angrily playing a trumpet in his jazz band, before angrily meeting up with his friends for a drink and then angrily walking home and angrily going to bed and it soon became too much to bear. I thought I'd give Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson et al a go, but I think the problem is really with the play itself. It's just a constant rant. If you like the play then this is probably a good rendering of it - a made for TV play (Thames Television) - with the action confined to one room (as far as I watched it) but I just found the constant ranting and bullying exhausting.