Look Back in Anger

Made for British television, 1989's Look Back in Anger is the third film adaptation of John Osborne's legendary "kitchen sink" stage drama. Kenneth Branagh plays working-class roisterer Jimmy Porter, the archetypal "angry young man" whose college education has led nowhere. Stuck in a go-nowhere job at a candy store, Porter rebels against the establishment through his boorish treatment of his wife (Emma Thompson) and mistress (Siobhan Redmond). Branagh's forceful performance allows us to ignore the structural shortcomings inherent in the play (Osborne writes in fluent tract). Earlier filmizations of Look Back in Anger starred Richard Burton and Malcolm McDowell.