Getting It Right ***½ (1989, Jesse Birdsall, Helena Bonham Carter, Jane Horrocks, Lynn Redgrave, John Gielgud) – Classic Movie Review 3797

‘Gavin is 31… and a virgin. One wild night and three women later, he’s finally… Getting It Right.’

Thanks to a sweet story and a sweet cast, this delightful 1988 British comedy about a late coming of age is getting it just about right. The appealing Jesse Birdsall gives an attractive and enjoyable performance as Gavin Lamb, a hairdresser working in a London West End salon, who is shy, single and still a virgin at the ripe old age of 31 – and still living with his parents (Pat Heywood, Bryan Pringle).

Things change when three very different women are suddenly interested in him and he embarks on a voyage of sexual discovery involving the plain single mother Jenny (Jane Horrocks) who works as an assistant hairdresser at his salon, a idiosyncratic reclusive wild child called Lady Minerva Munday (Helena Bonham Carter) and the love-starved, over-sexed married millionairess Joan (Lynn Redgrave).

This tremendous cast keeps it entertaining and funny, with standout performances from Redgrave and John Gielgud as a nouveau riche millionaire, Sir Gordon Munday.

With an expert screenplay by Elizabeth Jane Howard, based on her own novel, it is made, surprisingly, by American director Randal Kleiser, maker of Grease (1978), The Blue Lagoon (1980) and White Fang (1991).

Also in the cast are Peter Cook, Shirley Ann Field, Nan Munro, Judy Parfitt, June Ellis, Ian Redford, Kevin Drinkwater, Rupert Holliday-Evans and Richard Huw.

It was chosen as the Royal Command Performance film for 1989. The theme song is sung by Dusty Springfield.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3797

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