Sadly Over-hyped

People are voting emotionally.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING feels like a natural follow-up to WITHNAIL & I for director Bruce Robinson. It's another cult, quirky, idiosyncratic story, even more bizarre than the cult classic which preceded it. Richard E. Grant gives perhaps the most manic performance of his career as an advertising executive who succumbs to the pressure of the job and begins to imagine that a living, conscious boil is growing out of his shoulder. It's a bizarre and gruesome premise for sure, but one which feels remarkably grounded given Grant's warts-and-all performance. He dominates every screen in what is a very difficult part to play and he succeeds admirably. The rest of the film is a mix of quick-fire monologues, plenty of satire aimed at advertising and consumerism, and well-judged supporting performances.

Denis Dimbleby Bagley is a slick young advertising executive who is on his way up. However with his latest project he is struggling to come up with a way of selling a new pimple cream. The pressure on him to meet a deadline when he has creative block is so great that he develops a boil on his shoulder. His wife is concerned as he is aggressive and a bit rude at first but, when the boil begins talking to him and developing features, Bagley goes completely over the edge into insanity.In theory this is supposed to be a satire on commercialism but to be honest it is a deeply flawed one. At times it produces some wonderful lines (some of them up there with Withnail) and good ideas but it is mostly a messy affair as it lacks a structure and narrative flow. The boil idea distracts from the main thrust of the splitting personality of Bagley; it is an interesting device but it doesn't really work and the effects are not really up to the job of delivering the second head idea. This part is where the film is weak, and it is the majority of the time. Individual speeches and scenes are good but generally the whole thing is a mess.Fortunately for Campbell, he has brought Grant with him for this film and he is on great form. Of course in some scenes there is little he can do, but give him great dialogue and let him loose and he's great. If the film has anything worth seeing it for then it is undoubtedly Grant delivering some wonderful speeches and lines. The rest of the cast is a distant, distant second with nobody really marking themselves out for any praise. This is not because they are no good but just because Grant is in full flow and given all the good lines.Overall then, despite having some very good moments and very funny lines, this mess is mostly a failed satire that doesn't hang together or flow at all.

Absolutely stunning tour de force for Richard E Grant, deeply moving, hilarious, superb script and impressive performances from all concerned.Bagley's a complicated character : it's not fair to say that he was ever UNaware of what he was doing in advertising...... but certainly we catch him at a crossroads: he's decided that enough is enough and he simply can't carry on being the bad guy...... but times change again before it's too late, except his brief episode of goodness is enough to convince his wife that he's not worth living with........tragic, beautiful, complex, with a great and moving film-score based in parts on Saint-Saens' organ symphony......

This film is literally about "How to Get A HEAD in Advertising." Once a vigorous advertising agent in his field, able to sell anything to anyone, Denis Dimbleby Bagley (Richard E. Grant) has suddenly found himself working himself to death trying to come up with a sales pitch for pimple cream. His obsession with trying to conquer those bloody boils suddenly leads to an unexpected epiphany in which Denis, sick of how everything has become so relentlessly commercialized and every single value of life turned into a money making venture, decides to give up the advertising trade and wage a war on the commercialization of life. But, if there's one thing a revolutionary cannot do freely, it's stand in the way of profiteering. Denis faces a nemises, the one who wants him to keep on ruthlessly selling (and lying) to the world and stomp out the idealistic and possibly costly ambitions of the born again Denis Bagely. But it is no ordinary nemesis. It is a boil that grows on the his neck, an alter-ego that grew out of Denis's inability to sell everything (i.e. the pimple cream) and his newfound war against advertising. This boil comes to gain it's own personality, it's own voice, and even it's own appearance (it looks exactly like Denis). Everyone thinks that Denis is insane with his talks of a muttering boil on his neck which he engages in conversation with. The boil starts to grow a life of it's own, and even a head of it's own, seeking to stifle Denis before his epiphanies are carried to far, and people start thinking for themselves and so forth.It is certainly an off-the-wall dark comedy, but an absolutely hilarious one with a valid point about the incessant commercialization about nearly every aspect of life, and one person who recognizes what a load of bullocks it is and tries to rid himself of it as much as he can. The ending makes for a cool finale as boil head Denis is yapping like a proud general riding his horse around unconquered territory about the possibility of amassing the earth and selling the world bit like bit. He ideas so dangerous, yet he is unstoppable and out of control. It is one hilarious movie and certainly an inventive story.