Like I said to
@moreorless87 in the SMD, for the longest time
Withnail and I was just a title. I had no idea what it was. When I started it last night, I still had no idea WTF I was about to watch. For the first 20 minutes or so, it was glorious. It was like a riotous UK comedy version of
Midnight Cowboy. I loved literally every second, every line, every gesture. But then it turned into a
Eurotrip-style "fish out of water" road trip movie and I was so bummed. All the Uncle Monty/holiday shit sucked; I actually found myself seriously bored at multiple points during the middle. Then, when they made it back to their apartment and the film wrapped up, I was back to loving it. So, in essence, I loved the introduction and the conclusion but disliked everything in between.
No joke, though: The opening 25 minutes of that movie is arguably the funniest opening 25 minutes of any movie ever. Them in that apartment, doing the dishes, bitching in the park, going out to the pub, it was a riot. There are so many quotable lines, many of which you guys have already quoted, but my personal favorite was when I was trying to stop Withnail from going into the kitchen and he tells him that something might be living in there. Withnail's line upon being told that it might be a rat - "then the fucker will rue the day!" - had me rolling. And it's a credit to Richard E. Grant's performance that Ralph Brown wasn't able to steal the show the way that he did in
Wayne's World 2, even though he was, of course, hysterical as Danny. My favorite line from him was his drugged out John McClane question: "Have either of you got shoes?"
So yeah, very high highs but they weren't sustained. Still, I'm glad that I got to see this one. And I'm sure that I'll watch the beginning of that movie many more times even if I don't bother ever rewatching the whole movie again, though I'm sure I'll eventually give the full thing another try down the road.