The Rachel Papers – 1989 | 95mins | Romance, Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Debut director Damian Harris’s sly and sardonic sex comedy based on the best-selling first novel by Martin Amis. Harris is unable to capture the novel’s acerbic appeal, and resorts to having the scheming teenager clumsily narrate this coming of age tale to camera to reproduce the novel’s first-person perspective.

Charles (Dexter Fletcher), a precocious 19-year-old Londoner studying to go to Oxford University enters all the information about his love life into his computer in a determined effort to find the foolproof seduction technique. But his system collapses when he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Rachel (Ione Skye), an American living in London. Its love at first sight, but she already has a boyfriend, DeForest (James Spader). After a series of frustratingly unsuccessful attempts to woo Rachel, Charles invites her to his parent’s home for the weekend but just as romance appears to be blossoming DeForest arrives to crush their passions. The spirited Rachel eventually breaks away from her domineering boyfriend and joins Charles at his sister’s bohemian home for a passionate fortnight together, but then the dream begins to fall apart.