THE HIPPOPOTAMUS
Director: John Jencks
Cast: Roger Allam, Fiona Shaw, Matthew Modine, Dean Ridge, Tommy Knight, Emily Berrington, John Standing, Lyne Renee, Emma Curtis, Tim McInnerny, Emma West, Scott Chambers, Geraldine Somerville
Rating: (R16)
Four stars (out of five)
The Hippopotamus (Rialto and Metro) is based on a novel by Stephen Fry and its antihero, Ted Wallace (Roger Allam), has the ability to pour forth scorn in an impressively eloquent way, the only difference being that Ted is also very sweary in a very British way.
Ted used to be a respected poet, but how he just drinks whisky and writes theatre reviews.
It’s a good gig provided he can ignore his self-loathing, but one incredibly incompetent performance of Titus Andronicus has Ted standing up and giving the actors an early preview of his review.
Naturally it is filmed by someone in the crowd, goes viral and, rather unbelievably, gets him fired. Just as it seems that Ted has burnt his last bridge he is given a rather odd but lucrative commission: visit an old friend (who now hates him) and find out if the rumours of miracle cures have any truth.
Ted is not a believer in miracles, so the opportunity to debunk some new-age mumbo-jumbo is almost as attractive to him as the idea of drinking someone else’s whisky. While Ted blunders around being a jerk, but a jerk who is right, the truths he uncovers are rather eye-popping so be prepared to be appalled.
- Christine Powley
