Critics reviews

Fry's dialogue is terrific and interlaces with Waugh's own wit seamlessly. He encourages his young cast, many refreshingly unknown, to play up more than down... And without too much finger-wagging, Fry manages to reveal the legacy of youthful decadence, of careless hedonism, that a modern audience may find alarmingly familiar.

The epicness of the war doesn’t quite jibe with Bright Young Things’ previously insular scope, and its too-long epilogue is too spot-on, too plainspoken – the victim, I suspect, of the film’s prior, perfectly wonderful dodging of aggressive romantic sentiment, of wearing its heart on its sleeve

Fry, so deft with lighthearted moments, seems uncomfortable with Waugh's moralizing, and more serious scenes fall flat. "Bright Young Things" is like a party girl on her fourth martini. What had been fun and frothy turns irretrievably maudlin.

As pure comedy, "Bright Young Things" would be funny up to a point, and then repetitive. Waugh's novel and Fry's movie wisely see that their characters live by spending their comic capital and ending up emotionally overdrawn.

Fry seems to understand this sensibility intuitively. He plays Waugh's socialites and social climbers for laughs, but never loses the sense that their frivolousness has consequences.

Mr. Fry revels in the chaos of the plot, and the profusion of arch one-liners and zany set pieces gives the picture a hectic, slightly out-of-control feel.

The film is both gay and suffused with futility, both phantasmagoric and matter-of-fact. Fry loves these ghastly people—enough to make Bright Young Things a better title than Vile Bodies. Say what you will, they’re never a bore.

Fry understands the political disconnect of the era... but can’t be bothered to complicate his characters. Since their troubles are barely alluded to... these characters make less of an impression than their constant jigging and coke-snorting.

The picture's problem is that the writer-director is so desperate not to bore, he flits through the action a little too briskly, whizzing along with little rhythm. The story feels episodic, perhaps better suited to a television series.

Moralistic and serious-minded in its observations, Bright Young Things is primarily fast paced and often very funny especially when the starry senior cast are let loose on their colourful, larger than life characters.

Camp, comical and just OTT enough, it's a smooth satire of a shallow, celebrity-obsessed culture that, upper-crust dominance aside, isn't all that dissimilar to today's vanity circus... And though it falls short of Fry's best work in other fields, this is a sound first feature.