KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING (1997)

Cast

Plot

Would-be poet Gordon Comstock (Richard E Grant in typically manic form), is desperate to throw off the decidedly un-bohemian trappings of success. So, passing up promotion and a pay rise at the advertising agency where he works, he decides instead to jack it all in and starve in a garret in pursuit of his art. Soon realising that his new-found poverty is not going to win him literary acclaim, Gordon is forced to take a job in a bookshop, where his time is divided between half-heartedly pursuing his dream and resolutely avoiding the customers. Meanwhile, girlfriend Rosemary (played with familiar English repression by Bonham-Carter), resolutely avoids Gordon's advances, while big sister subsidises his self-imposed destitution. A far cry from George Orwell's satirical tale but frothily enjoyable nonetheless.