Black-belt performances from Claire Foy and Richard E Grant inject vim and vigour into this haranguingly one-note and unidirectional period romp set in the raucously bewigged and be-poxed 18th century. Written and directed by American filmmaker Peter Glanz, the film offers candlelit interiors reminiscent of a knockoff Barry Lyndon, along with periodic deafening orchestral stabs evoking Amadeus as furious costumed characters storm down corridors. However, Grant and Foy are always present, selling it hard, and there are one or two nice lines.
A Tale of Two Savages
The story follows Sir Chauncey and Lady Savage, who inhabit a vast crumbling country estate. He is a parvenu, an adventurer, and a lover of the new Hanover dispensation who loathes Jacobites. Fundamentally a social alpinist, he married for money and took his wife's noble name. She was entranced by his roguish ways and forgave him everything, but is now having an affair with the footman, Halifax (Jack Farthing), while he carries on with the maid, Dorothy (Bel Powley). Richard McCabe and Vicki Pepperdine portray two ghastly neighbours with dodgy teeth, the only people willing to associate with them.
A Social Climax
Just when it seems the Savages are socially beyond the pale, they are thrilled beyond measure when the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire invite themselves for dinner as part of a quasi-royal progress. The Savages' social stock price rockets, and they borrow ruinously to make the house worthy of their guests' imminent arrival, setting the stage for calamity. While the film is all a bit strenuous, Foy and Grant are such class acts that they make it watchable. Savage House screened at SXSW London and is released on 5 June in the UK and US.
