Main Cast: Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward, Richard Wilson, Jacqueline Tong, John Shrapnel
Release Year: 1989
Country: UK
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
After years of capitalizing on the weaknesses of a gullible public, a London advertising executive finds that his worst qualities have literally taken on a life of their own in this scathing satire. Successful copywriter Dennis Bagley (Richard E. Grant) lives a posh life with his lovely wife, Julia (Rachel Ward), in the London suburbs. Pushed to distraction by a bothersome new pimple-ointment account, he flirts with renouncing his career and becoming socially aware. Immediately thereafter, Bagley discovers that he's developed a zit of his own -- a monstrous boil on his neck that begins whispering evil things in his ear. Convinced that he's being taken over by his dark half, Bagley soon finds his "good" self relegated to the boil while his malevolent alter ego returns to the world of advertising with a vengeance. At first, Julia is relieved that her husband seems to have bounced back from the abyss of mental illness, but soon she realizes that she prefers the gentle but crazy Dennis to the poisonous professional. Written and directed by Withnail & I's Bruce Robinson, How to Get Ahead in Advertising reunites the director with that film's leading man Richard E. Grant. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
This black-hearted satire from actor-turned-director Bruce Robinson offers an incisive look at the cynicism and ugliness of unfettered capitalism. But it ain't Kafka, which is why it loses something once it gets past its witty setup and into its metamorphic main story line. Richard E. Grant is never less than riveting as the two sides of his personality -- the human being and the ad man -- split in two and one takes up residence in the talking boil on his neck. He's at his best, however, not when he's gibbering to himself, but when he's coldly explaining the mechanisms by which advertisers and their employers control the world. "'We know it's naughty, but you do deserve it,'" his character spits at a group of hapless junior account execs. "'Go on, darling, swallow a bun!" And she does. And the instant she does, the guilt cuts in. So here we are again with our diet." Such diatribes may ultimately grow wearisome, especially when espoused endlessly by a sentient pimple, but they turn the film's first act into a razor sharp satire about all that's ugly in modern consumer culture. As the film progresses, however, writer/director Robinson treats his talking-boil conceit literally rather than figuratively, and the laughs quickly become shrill. Rachel Ward is likable as the attractive wife who'd rather enjoy her privileged life than face up to the fiendish career that enables it, while Jacqueline Tong provides an amusing target for the Grant character's vitriol. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Susan Wooldridge - Monica; Mick Ford - Richard; Jacqueline Pearce - Maude; Hugh Armstrong - Harry Wax; Sean Bean - Larry Frisk; Rachel Fielding - Jennifer; Donald Hoath - Businessman; John Levitt - Businessman; Victor Lucas - Tweedy Man; Roddy Maude-Roxby - Dr. Gatty; Gino Melvazzi - Waiter; Pauline Melville - Mrs. Wallace; Tony Slattery - Basil; Pip Torrens - Jonathan; Tanveer Ghani - Hospital Doctor; Gordon Gostelow - Priest; Dawn Keeler - Tweedy Woman; Francesca Longrigg - Nurse; Joanna Mays - Phillis Blokey; Vivienne McKone - Receptionist; Christopher Simon - Waiter; Kerryann White - Girl in Elevator; Lucy Boulting
Credit
Henry Harris - Art Director, David Goruti - Choreography, Daivd Toguri - Choreography, Ray Cooper - Co-producer, David Wimbury - Co-producer, Andrea Galer - Costume Designer, Peter Kohn - First Assistant Director, Bruce Robinson - Director, Alan Strachan - Editor, David Dundas - Composer (Music Score), Rick Wentworth - Composer (Music Score), Peter Frampton - Makeup, Michael Pickwoad - Production Designer, Peter Hannan - Cinematographer, Bob Smith - Cinematographer, Kathy Sykes - Production Manager, George Harrison - Producer, Denis O'Brien - Producer, Robyn Hamilton-Doney - Set Designer, Bruce Robinson - Screenwriter, Reg Parsons - Gaffer
The movie is a farce about a mentally unstable advertising executive, Denis Dimbleby Bagley (played by Grant), who suffers a nervous breakdown while making an advert for pimple cream. Ward plays his long-suffering but sympathetic wife. Richard Wilson plays John Bristol, Bagley's boss.
Bagley has a crisis of conscience about the ethics of advertising, which leads to mania. He then develops a boil on his right shoulder that comes to life with a face and voice. The voice of the boil, although uncredited, is that of Bruce Robinson. The boil takes a cynical and unscrupulous view of the advertising profession in contrast to Bagley's new-found ethical concerns. Eventually, Bagley decides to have the boil removed in hospital but moments before he is taken into the operating room, the boil quickly grows into a replica of Bagley's head (only with a moustache) and covers Bagley's original head, asking doctors to lance it, which is done since nobody has noticed the switch from left to right nor the new moustache. Bagley, now with the boil head, moustache, and personality (the movies third personification from Grant after the stressed executive and the raving lunatic) returns home to celebrate his wedding anniversary, with the original head merely resembling a boil on his left shoulder. The "boil" eventually withers but doesn't die, yet Bagley resumes his advertising career rejuvenated and ruthless, although without his wife, who decides to leave his new cruel persona.
