Piccadilly Jim Reviews

The prodigious talent of Sam Rockwell accounts for most of whatever charm Piccadilly Jim can muster. Rockwell can't always save a film, but he's always fun to watch, and for the most part, Piccadilly Jim is engaging when he's onscreen. Director John McKay tries to capture a kind of anarchic spirit that he finds in P.G. Wodehouse's work, as opposed to sticking strictly to the text, so anachronisms abound, most notably in the set design, the music, and the mismatched style of the performances. For Rockwell, it's clearly a lark. He carries the film in relaxed, carefree style. Though Jim Crocker never seems to belong to a particular era and place, he has a kind of timeless debauchedness. He gets excellent support from Tom Wilkinson, playing much more "period" as Jim's father. The two share a couple of very funny scenes, as when they discover each of them has independently infiltrated Nesta's household under an assumed identity. Hugh Bonneville, playing more broadly, does an amusingly absurd turn as a Nazi spy. But some in the cast don't fare quite as well. Frances O'Connor plays Rockwell's romantic interest, but the two seem to be in different movies, and her occasional shrillness clashes with his cool insouciance. McKay is aiming for something freewheeling and loose-limbed, but Piccadilly Jim never quite comes together. It's mildly entertaining -- cute even -- but it's also kind of a mess.