How do you feel about this gag? Two hedonistic best friends and flatmates, Laura and Tyler, are running along when the heel on Tyler’s boot snaps off and she starts singing: “You picked a fine time to leave me, loose heel.” I think it’s both daffy and brilliant, and it’s one of many lines that author Emma Jane Unsworth decided to cut when adapting her 2014 novel for the big screen.
Something, alas, has happened to Unsworth’s original vision; it’s become slighter and more one-sided. In the book, aspiring writer Laura is never the prettiest girl in the room; here she spends an awful lot of time pouting picturesquely. Meanwhile, non-ambitious Yank Tyler is less of a central character than she is Laura’s foil. How un-womantic.
Once upon a time, tracking messy friendships between quote-unquote badly behaved, self-destructive females felt revolutionary. Ab Fab, Bridesmaids, Girls and Fleabag: they broke the rules. Animals feels like a step backwards, not least because director Sophie Hyde never creates a solid sense of place. In this jape-y world Tyler is able to steal a huge jar of MDMA from a drug dealer without fear of reprisal.
Still, Animals has its moments. Laura (Holliday Grainger) plans a white wedding with sensitive pianist Jim (Fra Fee). However, thanks to the machinations of Tyler (Alia Shawkat), Laura ends up spending an evening with a reprobate poet who, in the middle of cunnilingus, decides to put some cocaine on his tongue. In the moment that follows we see Laura as if for the first time. It’s hilarious.
As for Shawkat, she’s poignantly murky and, when it comes to lit crit, icily savage. Laura’s sister also snags a few decent lines, especially after the birth of her baby. It transpires that she’s on antidepressants, a reminder that the drugs handed out by doctors often permeate our lives as much as recreational ones.
The posters make the film look hip and punky. And the costumes throughout channel the spirit of Viv Albertine.
Who knows. Maybe one day Unsworth will revisit the friends and find a way to sneak in details of their gritty past. One can but dream.
Cert 15, 109 mins
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