The Trouble with Jessica
2023
Comedy

The Trouble with Jessica
2023
Comedy
Plot summary
Sarah and Tom are in terrible financial trouble. On the brink of losing everything, they’ve managed to find a buyer for their stylish London home. When their best friends Richard and Beth come round for a final dinner, an uninvited old friend, Jessica, tags along. After a seemingly trivial argument, Jessica hangs herself in the garden. Tom goes to call the police when Sarah realizes if the buyer finds out, the sale will collapse, meaning definite financial ruin. The only solution - to convince Richard and Beth to take Jessica’s body to her flat and make it look like she killed herself there. If they’re clever enough about it, what could possibly go wrong?
Director
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Is that Clafoutis?
Neatly cast but troublingly inconsisent & implausible dark Brit dramedy
The trouble with "The Trouble With Jessica", despite it being a neatly cast dark Brit dramedy, is co-writers Matt Winn (who also directed) & James Handel's inconsistent tone that lapses in style from serious wordy play (albeit one with the characters taking ridiculously implausible actions) to bursts of "A Weekend At Bernies" crass slapstick. Middle-class Londoners Alan Tudyk & Shirley Henderson host friends Rufus Sewell & Olivia Williams for dinner, which free-spirited pal Indira Varma effectively crashes... sparking the evening to wildly spiral. Sewell & Henderson particularly are great, but their film does not know what it is to be... and THAT is the trouble.
Great performances in this black comedy
Put wealthy, middle aged friends with a past, plus a current financial problem, in a dinner party in Hampstead one evening and bring an unexpected guest who causes havoc. This film is funny, keeps you on the edge of your seat to see what happens next and the performances from seven of the key cast are wonderful - including Shirley Henderson, Rufus Sewell. Olivia Williams, Alan Tudyk (though he looks a bit orange throughout), Indira Varma, Anne Reid and Groth, the house buyer. The two policemen are fun too in almost Dogberry and Verges roles.
However, it feels a little like it should be (or was originally) a play. The action happens almost entirely in one (very large) kitchen and the ground floor of a house filled with fabulous art.
There is quite a lot of swearing but to me it seemed appropriate to our protagonists, given who they are and the situation they find themselves in. No spoilers!
This was a really fun evening's viewing - interesting predicament, some farce, some irony, lots of laughs, some soul searching and great perfomances - and I make a great clafoutis too!
Of course they would never have got away with it - DNA all over
everything and wrong ligature - but I don't really care. Suspend disbelief and enjoy.