Those familiar with Michael Palin's post-Monty Python efforts know that he has chosen projects that sometimes go far afield from the off-the-wall wackiness of the Python pictures.
Though perhaps best known recently as the stuttering would-be assassin of "A Fish Called Wanda" and the host of the PBS "Around the World in 80 Days" documentaries, Palin has also starred with great success in the more low-key, semi-dramatic comedies "The Missionary" (1981) and "A Private Function" (1984).In terms of sensibility (and artistic success) Palin's latest, "American Friends," is most compatible with those films, along with such Merchant-Ivory efforts as "A Room With a View."
The story, co-written by Palin and based on the memoirs of his great-grandfather, has him playing a stuffy Oxford administrator/
teacher in the 1860s, who lives a lonely life - and likes it that way.
Each year he goes on a holiday by himself for a few weeks, and as the film opens he is making preparations for a trip to the Swiss Alps.
When he gets there, Palin is enjoying the scenery, the time to read and relax, and the solitude, when he finds himself interrupted by two - horrors! - women! And American women, at that!
This maiden aunt (Connie Booth) and her adopted niece (Trini Alvarado) are also vacationing and findthemselves put upon by the obnoxious family of an Oxford doctor. (Sounding more like "A Room With a View" all the time, isn't it?) So, they take up with the reluctant Palin, who finds himself strangely drawn to both of them.
But before the relationships go too far, he is suddenly called home when the president of Oxford seems close to his death bed. Along with another Oxford fellow (Alfred Molina), Palin is in competition for the presidency and must prepare for the inevitable election.
To Palin's surprise, the two American ladies show up at Oxford, asking for him, and soon he finds his cloistered, celibate world turned upside-down. (Oxford fellows - and especially a candidate for president - are required to remain unmarried and uninvolved with the opposite sex, of course.)
Palin is excellent, giving his character a surprising amount of depth. He's not afraid to behave in a short, curt or downright rude manner, and yet he never loses our sympathy, either for his plight or his torn loyalties. Also very good are Molina ("Enchanted April"), Alvarado ("Stella," "The Babe") and Booth (a supporting Python player, co-star and co-writer of the "Fawlty Towers" TV series, with then-husband John Cleese).
And though the film is quite funny in places, it's also a very serious look at the importance of fulfilling responsibilities - and determining which responsibilities (and desires) should take precedence in one's life.
"American Friends" is a very thoughtful film that should not be overlooked by the local art house crowd.
It is not rated but would likely get a PG-13 for a brief sex scene in the film's opening moments and a brief bit of male nudity, which is both comic and an important plot element.