Five plane crash survivors cope by becoming Marilyn, Clint, Meryl, Henry and Joan — method acting meets actual survival.
Alan Bleasdale's star-studded comedy/drama about the lives of five plane crash survivors stranded together on a deserted island. Starring Jane Horrocks, John Gordon Sinclair, Jennifer Ehle, Noreen Kershaw and Andrew Schofield. When a plane crashes, five very different survivors find themselves trapped together on an apparently deserted, idyllic island. Everyone else has been killed except for the five survivors that emerge from the wreckage, one unconscious. One of these people, a dedicated film-lover, makes light of their perilous situation by comparing it to countless movie plots. This leads the survivors to start their lives afresh, taking on the names and personalities of famous movie stars to cope in their interactions with each other, which leads to many hilarious and erotic encounters.
Acting
Horrocks and Ehle playing actors playing other actors. Inception casting.
Writing
Bleasdale's acidic wit on class aspiration and cinematic delusion.
Director
Robin Lefevre
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Jane Horrocks and Jennifer Ehle had both recently broken through in major films — this was shot during a brief window when two rising stars did a quirky TV movie together.
Bleasdale wrote this during his post-'Boys From the Blackstuff' peak, when his trademark working-class despair got increasingly theatrical and surreal. The island-as-cinema metaphor feels almost prophetic of reality TV culture to come.
GB
