The Ploughman's Lunch . Austin Chronicle . 10-26-98

The Ploughman's Lunch

DIRECTED BY: Richard Eyre

REVIEWED: 10-26-98

Borrowing its title from the popular British meal which consists of beer, bread, cheese, and a pickled egg, The Ploughman's Lunch sets its table dressing upon the bourgeois strata of England's media makers and academic elite. With the Falklands War raging in the background, we find emotionally detached journalist/historian James Penfield (Jonathan Pryce) thirsting after prestige and literary immortality. To attain his goals, and bury his low-class heritage, Penfield shovels his professional integrity into the furnace as he pens a politically agreeable account of the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. To add to his cause, he also pursues a professional colleague (Charlie Dore) in hopes of borrowing upon her family's reputation and stature. Gracefully, Pryce plays this role not as a misguided hero, nor anti-hero, but rather for what Penfield really is -- a paper boat which turns its rudder in conformity with political gales. And while the story manages to stay afloat to a royal end sequence, the real interest here is watching director Richard Eyre poke a camera at the British establishment and its dry, rigid social mores. Amidst this sometimes cold, restrained environment, story lines and heartaches cross into an intricate pattern of deception and intrigue, all the while waving a banner which broadcasts that most appropriate axiom: All is fair in love and war.

--Marcel Meyer

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