Synopsis
Sammy and Rosie are an unconventional middle-class London married couple. They live in the midst of inner-city chaos, surround themselves with intellectual street people, and sleep with everybody - except each other! Things become interesting when Sammy's father, Rafi, who is a former Indian government minister, comes to London for a visit. Sammy, Rosie, and Rafi try to find meaning through their lives and loves.
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Cast
- Shashi KapoorRafi
- Ayub Khan-DinSammy
- Frances BarberRosie
- Claire BloomAlice
- Lesley ManvilleMargy
- Suzette LlewellynVivia
- Roland GiftDanny / Victoria
- Emer GillespieEva
- Wendy GazelleVivia
- Meera SyalRani
Recommendations
- 100
Austin Chronicle
The film's triumphantly perverse climax, in fact, is just that: a three-tiered split-screen of three couples shagging that resembles nothing so much as a national flag and is set to a rendition of "My Girl" sung by a black trio dressed as colonial soldiers. When it hits such giddily subversive high notes, Sammy and Rosie ... transcends provocation and bursts into ecstatic revelation. - 90
Washington Post
Sammy and Rosie has a fierce, scrambled intelligence. In this story about a group of interlocking characters in a London neighborhood on the fringe, Kureishi and Frears rack up all of their views on sex, politics, colonialism, social injustice and rebellion like balls in a game of pool, then send them flying. And they seem less interested in pocketing shots than in watching the balls ricochet and collide. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
For people who love London and yet are thoughtful about it, this film is indispensable. - 80
The New York Times
Mr. Frears and Mr. Kureishi have composed Sammy and Rosie as if they were building a giant bonfire in a mock celebration of the achievements of contemporary British society and, by extension, of the civilized world. They throw everything on -love, death, sex, politics, violence. A lot of stuff doesn't easily burn, but there's also plenty that does. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Matters become increasingly contrived as the film collapses in exhaustion from thematic overload. Still it's a fairly impressive achievement as a whole. - 70
Variety
Frears levitates the film’s harsh realism with a fantastical counterpoint in touches like the ghost of a tortured labor leader who haunts Rafi from the outset, and a band of gypsy buskers who serenade the ongoing anarchy. - 40
Empire
Not as closely controlled as My Beautiful Laundrette, but still a purposeful cross-cultural comedy that raises a few questions alongside the few laughs. - 40
Time Out
Tossed together from a Hanif Kureishi screenplay which labours so many right-on themes that none leave their mark
