Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

didi-5 Young stage-struck Stella (Georgina Cates) has bright dyed red hair and lives with her aunt and uncle (Rita Tushingham and Alun Armstrong, both very good) in run-down Liverpool. She joins a theatre group where she isn't required to do very much and develops a crush on vain director Meredith (Hugh Grant, better than usual) and a half-contempt for the other members of the company (including a wicked parody of the professional ham from Edward Petherbridge). When flamboyant actor PL O'Hara (Alan Rickman, excellent) arrives to play Captain Hook in a new production of Peter Pan, his fate becomes entangled with Stella's in a way neither of them could have predicted. This movie veers from a sharp set of character studies of provincial theatre to a weird and twisted love story with a tragic resolution. Aside from the main story, there are two lovely support roles for Prunella Scales and Peter Firth. The one problem in the cast is Cates, whose background was in TV sitcom and it shows.

Vampyr_Girl I liked the film and, though I'm sure there were countless other ways that they could've still retained its twisted plot in a more concise way, I enjoyed the uniqueness of its story. It was certainly a sad story and it did catch me by surprise. Alan Rickman was terrific, but I wish I could've seen more of his character because for the amount of time he's in the film it simply wasn't enough, especially since he appeared to be a main character. However, it was entertaining and I really liked it and its originality.

Spamlet The likely reason people don't like this film is because it was released by Miramax who are infamous for mis-marketing their tough sell pictures ("Muriel's Wedding" was a feel good, laugh a minute romantic comedy? "Captives" was a thriller!). This movie isn't a sweet coming of age story. It's a devastating account of a young woman's loss of innocence in a cruel world.I tend to really like the movies most people find too depressing. Like the ancient Greeks I find human tragedy the greatest form of emotional catharsis. If you are the same way I recommend this film highly.

Malette The real hub around which this movie moves is not Hugh Grant or Alan Rickman but Georgina Cates as Stella, an unpaid sixteen year old student who is not only stagestruck but enamored of Meredith Potter (Hugh Grant), the cruel and thoughtless director who is more interested in boys.Stella, ignorant of most of life, is unaware of his predilictions and so ill-informed she is afraid she might have a venereal disease from touching a man with her hand. Having been abandoned by her mother (who is the voice on the phone giving the time), she is being raised by her aunt and uncle, well-meaning people who love her but have no idea of what to do with her or tell her. Eventually she is seduced by P.L. O'Hara (Alan Rickman), who has come to Liverpool to play Captain Hook but also to once again look for the woman who bore him a child many years before. He imagines he has a son and that belief allows him to continue, despite his lack of self worth.He eventually succumbs to his own predilictions when he pursues Stella. She, having no idea of sex other than as something to be done to her, is a slow learner but eventually says that like "learning a ukelele, it takes practice." The Grant character is so thoroughly despicable it proves once and for all that Hugh Grant can, in fact, act. Rickman gives a well done, mostly underplayed performance, not even having a line in the first four scenes he is in. Georgina Cates is the real jewel here, with a combination of naivete and boldness, along with a girlish charm which makes Stella believable as well as pathetic. Not the greatest movie made but a well done, well cast piece of work by professionals with a sense of purpose. See it! But not for the children.