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Product Description
Amazon.com
The vertigo-inducing ups and downs of the 1980s and '90s business world is cunningly intertwined with an unusual romance in Friends and Crocodiles, an intriguing tv-movie from BBC auteur Stephen Poliakoff. Paul (Damian Lewis, Band of Brothers), a wealthy developer, hires Lizzie (Jodhi May, The Turn of the Screw) on a whim to be his secretary--and then, after she helps him marshal his wide-ranging ideas into a shape that could be put into action, drives her away with his self-destructive need for chaos. But over the next couple of decades, as their careers rise and fall, their paths keep crossing. Each has something the other needs to truly do great things, but their contrasting temperaments make collaboration almost impossible. This description may sound dry, but the movie isn't; writer/director Poliakoff and his cast have crafted vivid, believable characters thrust into tense, often visually spectacular circumstances--the parties on Paul's estate will inspire both envy and disgust, while scenes from the venture capitalist world are almost unnerving as they capture the foolhardy confidence of businesspeople feeling their way in the dark. The push and pull of Paul and Lizzie's relationship will feel strikingly familiar to anyone who's had an intense work relationship, a romance not of the flesh or even the mind, but of the will to achieve. A fascinating fable of imagination and discipline. --Bret Fetzer
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crocodile in a suit,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Friends and Crocodiles (DVD)
Damien Lewis and Jodhi May are two of the best -- and most underrated -- British actors you can find in the entertainment biz. And their talents are on glorious display in "Friends and Crocodiles," a slow study of British society's changes throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as well as of one orderly ambitious woman and an eccentric man.Lizzy Thomas (May) is suddenly approached by Paul Reynolds (Lewis), a wealthy, whimsical real-estate emperor who wants her as his secretary. At first she's enthralled by his brilliant ideas, but soon she realizes that he enjoys chaos and mayhem -- and after a dangerous stunt at a party, she quits his employ. Over the years, Lizzie and Paul encounter each other periodically -- his real-estate empire crumbles to a tiny farm and a hippie-style polyamorous family, while she marries and becomes a wealthy CEO at a massive company. But as Lizzie's company begins to implode, she begins to reexamine what she truly thinks of Paul. The whole point of "Friends and Crocodiles" seems to be that inspired people need a little discipline, and disciplined people need a little inspiration. It's not a movie for everyone, since it's a rather slow-moving slice-of-life movie that basically charts the ups and downs of Lizzie and Paul's respective lives. But what really makes it shine is May and Lewis -- he's excellent as a "rock star" wealthy man whose life slowly crumbles away, and May is brilliant as an everyday woman whose success throws her into a spiderweb of moral dilemmas. They have powerful chemistry, and Stephen Poliakoff carefully sketches how both of them become wiser and learn that they both need a little of the other. And Poliakoff explores both sides of the coin, drifting from opulent mansions to dung-smeared farms, from marble mausoleums to midnight bonfires. And he takes an interesting look at how once-ridiculous ideas are now everyday realities -- ebook readers, Barnes&Noble-style coffee/bookstores, 3-D, and clean power from windmills. "Friends and Crocodiles" is an intriguing movie, but what tips it over the top is the performances by Jodhi May and Damien Lewis. A solid if slow-moving story.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews) 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Makes A Working Relationship Successful?,
By R. Crane - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Friends and Crocodiles (DVD)
Poliakoff's films are known for focusing on a slice of British life at a point in time. In "Gideon's Daughter" he captured the emptiness of celebrity culture, when it had reached unheard of heights after Princess Diana's death. In "Almost Strangers", the topic was family relationships, and the obsession with genealogy--digging to discover famous relations. In "Friends and Crocodiles" Poliakoff explores wprk relationships and how British industry and work practices have changed over the past 30 years. As he states, we spend the vast majority of our lives at work. Men and women develop work relationships that are almost like marriages, but lack the love connection."Friends and Crocodiles" is an interesting portrayal of such a relationship: A brilliant but non-conformist, wealthy, Gatsby-like figure, Paul, is able to identify areas of future economic growth, but is too disorganized and flawed to bring them to fruition. He hires a personal assistant who is gifted in organization and ability, but the two are unable to function together. "Crocodiles" refers to one of Paul's ideas, that there is something innate within crocodiles that must hold the secret to life. It is the only species to have survived intact from the time of the dinosaurs and has the ability to self-heal wounds. Ironically, though Poliakoff pokes fun at venture capitalists and their ideas for making money, in fact in the film, what might have looked absurd 8 years ago when the film was probably written, today is actually happening, e.g. electronic book readers (Kindle), windmill energy, and 3-D entertainment, to cite just a few. Poliakoff shows how the advent of computers replacing typewriters revolutionized business practices that were in effect for fifty years. He also accurately targets the telecommunications industry which went wild, and ultimately bankrupted multiple companies, causing the loss of thousands of jobs, stocks, pensions etc. on both sides of the Atlantic. Poliakoff is a "thinking" person's director/writer. His films are always profound on one level, but highly entertaining on every level. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The crocodile in a suit,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Friends and Crocodiles (DVD)
Damien Lewis and Jodhi May are two of the best -- and most underrated -- British actors you can find in the entertainment biz. And their talents are on glorious display in "Friends and Crocodiles," a slow study of British society's changes throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as well as of one orderly ambitious woman and an eccentric man.Lizzy Thomas (May) is suddenly approached by Paul Reynolds (Lewis), a wealthy, whimsical real-estate emperor who wants her as his secretary. At first she's enthralled by his brilliant ideas, but soon she realizes that he enjoys chaos and mayhem -- and after a dangerous stunt at a party, she quits his employ. Over the years, Lizzie and Paul encounter each other periodically -- his real-estate empire crumbles to a tiny farm and a hippie-style polyamorous family, while she marries and becomes a wealthy CEO at a massive company. But as Lizzie's company begins to implode, she begins to reexamine what she truly thinks of Paul. The whole point of "Friends and Crocodiles" seems to be that inspired people need a little discipline, and disciplined people need a little inspiration. It's not a movie for everyone, since it's a rather slow-moving slice-of-life movie that basically charts the ups and downs of Lizzie and Paul's respective lives. But what really makes it shine is May and Lewis -- he's excellent as a "rock star" wealthy man whose life slowly crumbles away, and May is brilliant as an everyday woman whose success throws her into a spiderweb of moral dilemmas. They have powerful chemistry, and Stephen Poliakoff carefully sketches how both of them become wiser and learn that they both need a little of the other. And Poliakoff explores both sides of the coin, drifting from opulent mansions to dung-smeared farms, from marble mausoleums to midnight bonfires. And he takes an interesting look at how once-ridiculous ideas are now everyday realities -- ebook readers, Barnes&Noble-style coffee/bookstores, 3-D, and clean power from windmills. "Friends and Crocodiles" is an intriguing movie, but what tips it over the top is the performances by Jodhi May and Damien Lewis. A solid if slow-moving story. 2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Really Good Drama!,
By C. Alford - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Friends and Crocodiles (DVD)
It is about a power struggle between a rich young businessman and his secretary. He is chaotic and she an organizational wonder but they find out that their styles and personalites clash. They end up driving each other apart only to be drown again and again to each other. A wonderful story.
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