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Withnail & I

Withnail & I

Comedy · Drama · 1987

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

Movie details

Withnail & I

“If you don't remember the 60s don't worry, neither can they.”

1987 Comedy · Drama 1h 48m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.5 / 10

50.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

84 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

84 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Withnail & I?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Bruce Robinson

Written by

Bruce Robinson

Richard E. Grant

Richard E. Grant

Withnail

Paul McGann

Paul McGann

...& I

Richard Griffiths

Richard Griffiths

Monty

Ralph Brown

Ralph Brown

Danny

Michael Elphick

Michael Elphick

Jake

Daragh O'Malley

Daragh O'Malley

Irishman

M

Michael Wardle

Isaac Parkin

Court is in session

Put Withnail & I on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.