Give It Up Review – An insufferable group of actors reconnect for a weekend of pain and comedy | film

WDirector Tim Brain Smith clearly never got the memo, coined directly after the waves of derision that greeted Peter’s Friends in 1992, that any movie about a group of friends who are or have been former actors getting together is fair game for ridicule, sniping, and all manner of startling disdain. Because no one really likes to watch actors play actors, even though he recently won an Oscar for Sentimental Value. But Brain Smith and company clearly haven’t read The Room, so here is Almost Insufferable Surrender, about a motley group of older would-be thespians who’ve all met at a drama workshop that day coming together again for a weekend of hiking.

The screenplay, credited to Bryn Smith and Chris Wheaton, feels like it came out of a bunch of improvisational exercises and random suggestions pulled out of a hat. One such episode involves bereaved couple Danny (Damien Greaves, in better form here) and Selina (Melissa May Smith) who are mourning their deceased son. While this is handled with some sensitivity, the maudlin tone doesn’t mix well at all with the supposedly comedic subplots that occupy the rest of the running time. These focus on former (and largely unlikely) best buds including Ram (Fletcher Graham) who has become a major movie star recovering from a recent scandal à la Johnny Depp with whom he has an affair (Alexander Rose). Hugo (Bryn Smith) is supposed to be the never-blooming talent who harbors deep feelings for another member of the group, but not who you might think. There’s influencer Evie (Chantelle Lee), who has secret feelings for one of the group, and her friend Chrissie (Clare Alexandra Isabelle McGill), who’s being courted by a musician with a ridiculous Latin accent we’ve never met. Dobby Timmy (Ben Grace) wants everyone to help him find the treasure hidden by his recently deceased father.

Meanwhile, a trio of neighboring locals who seem too well-dressed to fit the dirty stereotypes the dialogue has set for them, have a hand in the main gang by mistake, having all gotten out of their heads on magic mushrooms. That last bit might serve as a clue as to how the script is put together — but nothing justifies the stiffly gestural quality of much of the acting, the amateur production values, or the scissor-puncher editing.