I picked this one out as my number one selection from the range of movie offerings on the long Perth to Sydney flight. I did so solely because I saw the name of Stephen Fry in there, and it really did prove to be a top choice. The narration was pure Fry wit, and the gently-paced plot full of his humour, at times subtle, at times grotesque, and sufficient to keep me guessing how it would all work out in the end.Ted Wallace is weary beyond all human capacity for weariness of the mindless pap that is served up under the guise of 21st century "culture", and can hardly be blamed for seeking refuge in a bottle of whisky, or rather a great many bottles of whisky. Then out of the blue he is suddenly presented with his very own hero's journey, which he embarks on with great reluctance and reservation, but ultimately manages to see clean through the dense haze of crap.8/10 for a jolly good 90 minutes of that flight.

I cannot recommend this movie for many reasons. I will list three:The dialogue..."blah, blah, blah, cuss, cuss, cuss...blah, blah, blah, cuss, cuss, cuss."It's focus on destroying any hope or faith at all was disturbing. Disrespecting and ridiculing throughout.The theme of "how sexually disgusting can I be... all set in a beautiful English countryside" was a constant. And truthfully, it just got old...it's like the writer was stuck on the same merry-go-round of: disgust, rude, offense, sexual baseness, cuss....but with an Englishaccent to make it sound really brilliant. Well, don't be deceived, it was not.I wasted my time...don't waste yours.

Before even realizing it I thought that this sounded like Stephen Fry with his never ending sentences, analogies and metaphors that are neither that funny or clever for that matter. It was narrated by the lead character, but might as well of been narrated by Stephen Fry and the gist was lost in endless babble. I thought the story was more based on his atheist ideologies but probably could of worked but didn't. The characters were weak and the lead character was over dramatic and unrealistic. I have noticed, that many British shows will have quirky characters or the usual cynical grump, but instead of connecting to them, they are just over the top like a children's pantomime. I have never read the book, so have no clue how close to the story the movie was.

The Hippopotamus is based on a novel written by our local boy Stephen Fry, and that should tell you a lot about it, but it probably won't.The story is of Ted Wallace (Roger Allam), an old poet, brilliant despite his toxic personality and propensity for whisky. Fired from his job as theater critic, he meets an old acquaintance who proposes him an unusual job, to investigate the mysterious going-ons at an estate of a family he used to be friends with .. before he destroyed their relationship in a drunken fit. And Ted sets out to do his Teddish usual, but, being the perceptive soul he is, and fundamentally still a good man, he lays off the booze and unravels the mystery of Swifton Hall.The film is structured in the manner of the old Poirot films, with less focus on the mystery, and more on the interaction between the characters, and more importantly, class conflict, of which the film ... well, has some. The Hippopotamus is not a great film, i won't lie to you. It was a bad choice to pick this particular novel for the adaptation, because the story isn't really interesting and there aren't enough memorably moments, no great face-offs. The book itself was never meant to be a mystery thriller, but rather, a book of poems written in novel form. And the dialogue in The Hippopotamus is of absolutely stellar quality. It is, we could say, la raison d'être of the film, in its role of merely a platform for Fry's masterful compositions of the English language.As for the production, i found the soundtrack to the severely lacking. The film adaptation also demands a rewrite and some decent direction, and while this may require Effort(tm) i don't see why we need to stop at simply filming theater, since that's the very opposite of why films exist.You should watch The Hippopotamus, it's very well acted (with Roger Allen in top shape), occasionally funny, and contains at least one memorable line, but if you do watch it don't expect to be amazed; once the words hit the screen, you'll realize it's still only a book, and not A FILM.7.5/10 - if you want to do better, learn to use the camera.