Wish You Were here Review

Wish You Were here
Post WWII and little Lynda (Lloyd) grows up with her widowed father (Bell) and younger sister. She's a rebel, swearing since she can remember and looking for a ll her feminine rage. At sixteen she seeks out sexual encounters and challenges the lower-middle class' uptight sexual practices, but eventually gets pregnant by a friend of her father's.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1989

Running Time:

92 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Wish You Were here

This is the film that made Emily Lloyd an instant star. Charting the exploits of a maverick teenager and stuffy post­war Britain’s response to her, Wish You Were Here is a collection of short-back-and-sides, you’re-not-to-old-to-take-across-my-knee reminiscences about a world that may well never have existed. Lloyd revels in the promiscuity of the role and, aside from Tom Bell, who is as imperious as ever, steals the film from under the noses of those that would have her burned at the stake for such heathen practises as sex before marriage. Still, the grimness of it all is hinted at with Lynda’s eventual pregnancy.

Idyllic despite its inherent naughtiness, Wish You Were Here is a raunchy postcard from an age that exists largely now for filmakers to make of it what they want.
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