How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Thought provoking, quality acting, no social-agenda pushing...just a film that doesn't treat the viewer like a handicaped child . It was a delight to see a film attack the modern society and it's constant and dependence on the director's agenda/view bogging down a message. This movie is exactly the kind of movie the world needs more of. (not a clone, but the concept of bringing to light HOW the world works and how people are manipulated with their own fears and insecurities into doing the bidding of big business...under the guise of choice).

Denis Bagley is a hot-shot advertiser who can do no wrong. he knows his client as well as he knows his own face, he can tell anybody who stars at the goggle box what to do, what to think and what to buy? His words are weapons of the consumer age and he will sell anything to anyone. Money is his to have and the general public buys what he tells them, giving him the power of a God. However, as he strikes a bit of a problem over pimple cream he starts to lose his edge, he is cnfronted by the realisation that maybe he is not the person he thinks he is, or wants to be, as he listens to a conversation on a train over a story written by the other people who tell everyone what to do, the popular press, he bursts the bubble of those discussing the story by pointing out that a bag of cannabis that could have contained cocaine, could also have contained a pork pie. "It's the use of the word "Could"" Denis exclaims, as he realises that perhaps, the power that he has is being misused. As he decides to rid himself of advertising and turn a new leaf. However as he starts to develop a painful boil on his neck he starts to have anxiety pains over this turn of direction, resulting in his boil growing a face and speaking to him. What happens from this point is a tour-de-force satire on the modern world that was arguably twenty years before its time as the commercial markets freedom has led to our current crop of problems, rather than to their solutions. Richard E Grent is amazing as the Ad Exec with an attack of conscience that takes on alarming results, with able support from Rachel Ward and Richard Wilson. The direction is good, but it is the razor sharp script that gets all the plaudits by challenging our perception of the real world as much as the Matrix, but with the certain knowledge that the questions raised in this film, we can address as the credits come up. Know thyself.

This movie does not know what it wants to be. Above all, it should be a comedy, but there is a problem: it is not funny. Richard Grant and his typical overacting are so annoying that you do not care about what he is going through. No way this movie deserves the 6.8 stars it has now. It should be 3.8. Tops.

This is film is definitely a black comedy, which some may find rather bizarre. It is based on an allegory: Our conscience. Richard E. Grant was fab!! His work in this film, is not to be missed. The entire cast was fantastik, including the beautiful and talented Rachel Ward, Jacqueline Tong, Pauline Melville & I believe that was Susan Woolridge! They were all sublime! Initially you may feel that the acting is a bit forced, or quirky, but it's supposed to be. If you don't understand it, don't give up, try to listen between the lines. The message relates to the advertising world & the media, which in turn, try to control the minds of the consumer. It's the advertisers who pay the ad agencies, media & newspapers to advertise. What's scary is that there are individuals who believe just about everything they see, read, or hear. Why? I don't know. Maybe you'll get it after seeing the film & start listening to yourselves. We loved it!

This one is a little bit too far off the wall for me, it's almost on the ceiling and the boil is quite nauseating. Mr. E really is quite freaky here too and this is one of those performances of his that puts me off of him sometimes. He was fine in 'Withnail and I' (198??) and his more recent work has been more tempered, but this is extreme, even for him. The moral of the insanity and the big brother state force feeding people through advertising is quite valid, but it get's lost in all the craziness. I do wonder if it would have worked better with maybe Patrick Stewart or someone of that more classic style in the lead role. Richard being slightly eccentric and OTT to begin with. It should have finished when he was driving his Range Rover on the motorway. That would have been a clever ending. It's far too weird for me. I won't be watching it again! 080.61/1000.

I imagine the handful of other people who have watched this film were largely, like myself, drawn to it by the desire for something - anything - that could possibly be as good as Withnail and I. This is BETTER. The premise is quite simple. Richard. E Grant plays a disenchanted, unenchanting advertiser, who is not only struggling with his social life, but also with his latest pitch - a new cream to cure boils. After spending a weekend frying his brain over it, he has an epiphany (or a breakdown) and decides that he has finished with advertisement. He shows this by removing every object 'corrupted,' by the industry. Chickens are thawed in the toilet, and televisions drowned in the bath. If any other writer worked with this plot, the film would be much less interesting. We would see the protagonist discovering what really matters. Love. Giving money to the poor. He would decide to go back to advertising - but this time, with integrity. The last scene would have him doing an advertisement for a charity, before stepping into the loving arms of his wife, Julia. Of course, it's not any other writer. It's Bruce Robinson. This means insanity. This means genius. This means...talking boils? Yes, that's right. A talking boil. This character - played by Bruce Robinson - hangs about on Richard. E Grant's neck, slowly destroying his life. No one else could lend so tragic an edge to this farcical comedy. Richard E Grant does another effortlessly beautiful turn as the supplanted husband, forced into submission by the malignant pustule controlling his life. I won't spoil the ending for you - but you must see this film. Like Withnail and I, it only has a couple of large characters. The setting is small and the plot strange. Not an awful lot happens, but you will feel every beautiful insult or idiom sinking into your brain, ready to be used on the next person who cheeses you off.

Quite a special and singular film! I was not expecting the movie to go the route it did but I was very glad it did. Most films that go down the absurd path that this did usually end up somewhere in a pool of camp or B-movie status, but this movie has enough plausible meaning, and is written, acted, and delivered with such impeccable talent that it holds ground as a film that can be taken seriously thoroughly in all regards. The concept is quite brilliant and daring and it was pulled off in a manner that is only more impressive as the movie continues - there is intelligence behind it. I was thinking through most of it how it surprisingly didn't remind me of most other British films or even British humor that I have observed - the only thing I could really place it with is some of the more bizarre Australian books, shows, and films I have taken in over the years. Richard E. Grant honestly gives an Oscar worthy performance in this - he is a maniac, and his range deserves immense praise. The film does feel somewhat inconclusive, but I really don't have many complaints about it... I am excited to check out the director's most notable film, Withnail & I, soon.

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......

Its a brave, scathingly funny film that might be an acquired taste. This one definitely needs a memorable quotes section!! For a film made so long ago, its quite an accurate and eerie depiction of what the PR industry has mutated into...

I cannot believe that imdb does not have any "memorable quotes" for this film! Maybe that is because the entire script is one memorable quote after another. A deliciously evil and intelligent skewering of our consumerist society. Richard E. Grant is phenomenal as always.