Too much of everything

Sorry, this movie sucks

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Plenty is one of my all-time favourite films. I loved this movie.I understand why many people did not like it, but I think they should have another look. Sure, it is not an easy movie to watch, and Meryl Streep's character is not the most pleasant woman in the world, but that is part of the point. "Plenty" is unabashedly unsentimental, and that is one of its greatest strengths.Meryl Streep gives one of her best performances, and it's not only because of her flawless British accent. That is just the surface of Ms. Streep's complete, and absolutely brilliant transformation into a very complicated character. She is also sexier than she has ever been on screen up to that time. She looks simply beautiful!!This film is about as performance-oriented as films get, and it is full of great performances -the entire cast is excellent!!"Plenty" is a movie about how different life can turn out from the way we plan it. It is not supposed to be cheerful. It is gritty, gripping, and extremely powerful. It portrays the hardships of Resistance era France, and the harsh realities of Britain immediately after the Second World War; as well as the decadence that prosperity can bring, and the disappointments of life, and how the inability to deal with them can destroy a person's sanity.Of particular note are Charles Dance, as Streep's husband, Sam Neil as her lover, Sting and Tracey Ullman in small but important supporting roles, and especially Sir John Gielgud, who effortlessly steals the few scenes he is in. In one of the movie's few comic moments, Mr. Gielgud corrects the wife of a Burmese diplomat just as he is leaving a dinner party on the nationality of a certain European film director. Just this scene makes the movie worth watching!I have seen this movie described as an underrated tour-de-force. That is an extremely fitting description. I would add the word classic to that description. This is a film that challenges the viewer to sit through its grim depictions of what life can be like if we don't know how to deal with life not turning out like we want it to. Depicting different eras from the Second World War to the early to mid sixties, "Plenty" is a period piece with painstaking recreations and some incredible locations in England, France and Jordan.If someone has not seen this movie, I urge them to buy it or rent it and watch it. For a long time, this film was not available in widescreen on home video. Now there is at least one widescreen DVD which restores the film to its stunning beauty and allows us to enjoy its excellent cinematography. To anyone who appreciates great acting, this film is a MUST SEE. No serious film collector should be without this great classic.If someone has seen it but did not like it, I urge them to watch it again, and again.I have seen this film at least 50 times, and I could easily watch it 50 times more.

"Plenty" was adapted for the big screen by David Hare from his stage play of the same name. I haven't seen the play. The film is complex. It is also strangely beguiling (primarily due to the riveting performances of its leading stars) but ultimately less than wholly satisfying. The plot covers a period of twenty years or so after the end of the Second World War. It centres on the life of Susan Traherne (played with subtle brilliance by Meryl Streep), who works in Special Operations in occupied France during the War. While doing so, she has a very brief romantic dalliance with a fellow agent, Lazar (Sam Neill), who parachutes in to assist the resistance against the Nazi occupiers. Their passionate one-night stand (which is all it was) has a deep and lasting impact on Susan, one which essentially haunts her for the rest of her life. A few years after that liaison, Susan meets Raymond Brock (Charles Dance), who works as a junior diplomat in Brussels. He visits her at weekends in post-war London, where she works in a dull administrative job and shares her accommodation with a bohemian girlfriend, Alice (Tracey Ullmann). Desperate to have a child, Susan asks Mick (Sting) to father one with her. Still childless, Susan eventually marries Raymond but her increasingly selfish and neurotic behaviour casts a shadow over his diplomatic career and their marriage. It's a long time since I have seen a film in which all the performances seem to be so good. Streep, Dance and Ullmann are excellent. And there is a first-rate cameo from John Gielgud, who plays a diplomat who resigns his position because of what he considers to be the betrayal and the immoral behaviour of the British government in response to the Suez crisis of the late 1950s. I say the performances "seem" to be top notch for one very good reason. To be able to judge them accurately, the viewer needs to understand everything that is going on. And I have to confess that I am far from sure that I completely follow exactly what the central message of "Plenty" is. Indeed, the remoteness of the film (in terms of its comprehensibility) is a major weakness. I am not at all sure either that I understand why the film has the title it does. I think what Hare is trying to tell us is that the moral values for which people like Susan fought in the Second World War were eventually corrupted by the materialism (the "plenty"?) and the selfishness that were prevalent in the post-war years. But I am by no means sure that that is the message of the film. I suspect that "Plenty" is one of those movies that yields its meaning gradually and therefore necessitates more than one viewing. (I have seen it only the once.)There is one other problem with the film, albeit a minor one. Some of the external scenes, particularly those set in London, seem oddly unconvincing. I think this is because they give the impression of being shot inside a studio rather than outdoors. This tends to give them a somewhat theatrical, as opposed to cinematic, air. But, all in all, a good film. 7/10.

David Hare's brilliant stage play has been translated beautifully to the screen. The peculiar English trait of natural melancholy radiates throughout this sad exercise of seeing all through the lens of British class consciousness, repression and despair. The color photography, the performances, the stifling framing of the widescreen shots all add to the oppressive beauty of a story about the self-destruction of a preternaturally beautiful woman. Mery Streep has never been better before or since. Hare makes her intellectual acuity a weapon against herself as she sees through all the ghastly pretenses of a corroding Empire. No insight, no beauty of body, no letting go of formality and pretense can save her from herself. Feminism itself is taken to the burning stake as Streep's character thrashes, Hedda Gabbler like, against walls and prohibitions beyond her understanding. Rarely has such condemnation looked so ravishing.

Plenty is a fantastic Meryl Streep film with a great cast of stars. Plenty was filmed during the 'Streep' days of films such as Sophie's Choice, Out of Africa and other true Streep Dramas. Streep plays an English woman after WWII where she was a involved in the war by transferring information against the Naza's. Following the war Streep never seems to find anything in life to fill her passions in life, always moving onto something new, trying desperately to find some happiness, some reason in life. We see Streep seep into Mental Illness as she is obsessed with her pass nostalgia's. Streep seeks such things as becoming a single mother (Sting plays the man she seeks to father her child) and takes in a friend (Tracey Ulman). Ulman's character is always looking for the right man, Streep is always seeking the right career, the right cause but nothing seems to bring her happiness. There are terrific scenes in this movie as Streep marries a man in the Parliment, a man that conforms to a life as an English conservative while Streep is an outlandish, outspoken woman who can't hold back and has a terrible time of biting her tongue always speaking her mind. This is a terrific film. Streep is fantastic.