by Mark Murton

Directed by: Michael Austin

This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Neurotic only child Alistair Berg (Richard E. Grant), an unsuccessful door-to-door salesman, arrives home one day to learn his mother has received a letter from his father, who abandoned them years earlier, claiming he wishes to be reunited with them. They agree that Berg should travel alone to the Southend-on-sea hotel to accompany him home. Instead, it soon becomes clear that Berg is intent on patricide rather than reconciliation.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Arriving at the run-down hotel, which is officially closed for repairs with just a few select guests allowed to stay, Berg finds his father is out but meets his new, much younger partner, Judith (Julie Walters.) She immediately makes an unsubtle and drunken attempt to seduce him until her amorous advances are interrupted by the arrival of another guest, Spanish flamenco dancer Luisa (Laura Del Sol), who is returning her brown tabby cat “Sebby” (short for Sebastian, the name of the cat in Ann Quin’s book Berg from which this film was adapted).

Judith gathers up the cat…

…and plonks it down on the increasingly uncomfortable Berg.

He sits there nervously holding Sebby while Judith makes him a drink of hot chocolate.

After spilling most of it she hands it to Berg and collapses onto the sofa beside him. The cat eventually makes its escape, followed by Berg soon after.

Kitty Carnage Warning! The cat, or rather an unconvincing stuffed version, makes one more appearance when the hotel owner Margot (Ann Way) comes into the room brandishing the dead body of Sebby who has been run over.

Final Mewsings: There may be a good reason why your cat keeps running away!

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