Although I've marked this review as containing spoilers, it's difficult to judge what might actually 'spoil' any first-time viewing of this film as it is primarily an artistic experience rather than a straightforward story. Nevertheless, there is a plot (of sorts), points of which I will refer to.
When I first watched The Knack, I came to it totally unprepared. Naively, I was expecting this to be a straightforward situation comedy piece and found myself left rather cold by characters I couldn't empathise with, dialogue that just didn't seem realistic, baffling and rather unfunny routines which seemed to go on interminably and a plot which seemed to lurch from one scenario to another as though someone was making it up as they went along. Without its solid cast, lovely John Barry score and myriad nostalgic views of a bygone London, I probably would have switched off through a combination of boredom and confusion. However, I stuck with it and towards the end things started to click a little as I gradually became more attuned to the film's wavelength.
Consequently, I decided to give it another try a couple of weeks later to see if it really was as bad as I'd imagined or whether having different expectations from the outset would enhance the viewing experience. I'm glad to say that I did enjoy the film a lot more the second time around.
The Knack is an allegorical story to be interpreted, rather than just followed. My own interpretation after this second viewing is that the whole piece is a metaphor for the position of sexual intercourse in society. The whole film is punctuated by comments from bystanders consisting of the older generation which are judgemental and disapproving, representing how sexual intercourse, although a vital part of life and essential for the continuation of the species, is generally taboo, deemed to be dirty and immoral by the senior cross-section of society, with more than a hint of jealousy towards the youth they themselves have lost.
Arriving into the lifestyle of big city comes young, attractive and naively innocent Nancy Jones (Rita Tushingham), the metaphor for a woman coming of age. Her unfamiliarity with how things work in the big city (eg the luggage lockers at the station) demonstrate how she's unaware of how relationships in her life work now that she's unwittingly become an object of sexual desire. And even though she's free of any notion of sexual promiscuity, the fact that she looks beautiful means that the public automatically assume she's 'up for it' and putting herself around, hence she's the target of criticisms from the older onlookers. However, women soon learn not to take men's smooth-talk at face value, witnessed by the scene in the clothes store where Nancy catches the salesman out giving the same compliments to every female customer who comes in.
Then there's the young man, and he comes in three forms. First, there's Tolen (Ray Brooks), the man who's successful at pulling the women. At the start of the film we see dozens of slim, curvy women all dressed identically, queuing up to enter his bedroom, symbolising the numbers he goes through to satisfy his desires without him ever seeing them as individual people - they're all just sex objects in his eyes. Tolen never uses his first name, nor will he reveal it, suggesting that there are aspects of his character that he had to shed or suppress in order to achieve and maintain his status as the great lover.
Then there's Colin (Michael Crawford), the man who wants sex but can't get it, and his carnal desires border on the downright lustful at times, hence he sees himself as being one of the dirty old men peering through the fence as the teenage schoolgirls play sports. He's jealous of Tolen's success with women. First of all he tries to learn from him, and the water-skiing episode shows him just trailing far behind in Tolen's wake, finding himself out of his depth. Then he tries competing against him, thinking that it's just a question of having the right equipment to attract the opposite sex, so he gets himself a bigger bed. Size envy?
And then there's Tom (Donal Donnelly), the man who's more interested in his hobby to think much about sex. His passionate hobby (in this case, painting everything white) is of no interest to anyone else, but unincumbered by sexual thoughts he's a benign presence who's a genuine friend to everyone, behaving as he does without any hidden agenda.
So, events transpire to bring Nancy together with the three men. Tom is just friendly towards her. Colin is smitten with her. Tolen sees her as just another potential conquest. He commences his method of being dominant. Colin, meanwhile, should be dominant also as he's fooling around pretending to be a lion, but he just shows how hapless he is, whereas Tolen is far more dominant in his role of 'lion tamer' and soon has Nancy under his spell.
But there's a fine line between dominance and force. When Nancy claims rape, all three men quickly shy away from her - although no one else in society, it seems, is interested in her claims, perhaps a reflection on the times that people would easily judge a girl by assuming that just because she happened to be good-looking she must have been asking for it.
There's another man in the plot, though we never see him. Rory is mentioned early on by Tolen as another man who is a hit with the girls. Tolen doesn't see him as a serious rival at that stage, but wants to be associated with him, thinking it will be to his own benefit. There are further references to Rory later in the film, suggesting he is becoming a bigger hit with the women. And by the latter stages, when Tolen's confidence and reputation are crumbling after Nancy's claims, Tolen finds the hard way that the women are now only interested in Rory and not him. He had not appreciated the transient nature of his status as the top dog in town, and the girls have now all moved on to the next big thing.
We never see Colin finally 'get his leg over', but his relationship with Nancy blossoms as she builds his confidence, allowing him to be himself rather than trying to be like Tolen. The film ends with him and Nancy walking off together to share a future that will be meaningful while, significantly, Tolen watches from the sidelines, having suddenly joined the ranks of the bitter, jealous older generation.
The film's style, which includes lots of imagery and various instances of trick effects, would have seemed far more innovative back in the mid-1960s than is the case nowadays. For instance, there's a sequence involving the characters going into and coming out of lots of different doors, an idea that's been put to use many times since in things like Scooby Doo cartoons, so in that respect it probably hasn't aged well. A lot of the comedy just isn't that funny (an example being Colin picking up a milk crate thinking it's his briefcase, whilst the unwitting milkman has picked up Colin's briefcase) and the five minutes of screentime where Rita Tushingham continually says "Rape!" in a light-hearted manner is rather uncomfortable, given that it should never be a light-hearted subject.
However, The Knack is lively and original, and has depth. It will certainly quickly alienate many viewers, but should also still have the power to win a few fans. 6 out of 10.
When I first watched The Knack, I came to it totally unprepared. Naively, I was expecting this to be a straightforward situation comedy piece and found myself left rather cold by characters I couldn't empathise with, dialogue that just didn't seem realistic, baffling and rather unfunny routines which seemed to go on interminably and a plot which seemed to lurch from one scenario to another as though someone was making it up as they went along. Without its solid cast, lovely John Barry score and myriad nostalgic views of a bygone London, I probably would have switched off through a combination of boredom and confusion. However, I stuck with it and towards the end things started to click a little as I gradually became more attuned to the film's wavelength.
Consequently, I decided to give it another try a couple of weeks later to see if it really was as bad as I'd imagined or whether having different expectations from the outset would enhance the viewing experience. I'm glad to say that I did enjoy the film a lot more the second time around.
The Knack is an allegorical story to be interpreted, rather than just followed. My own interpretation after this second viewing is that the whole piece is a metaphor for the position of sexual intercourse in society. The whole film is punctuated by comments from bystanders consisting of the older generation which are judgemental and disapproving, representing how sexual intercourse, although a vital part of life and essential for the continuation of the species, is generally taboo, deemed to be dirty and immoral by the senior cross-section of society, with more than a hint of jealousy towards the youth they themselves have lost.
Arriving into the lifestyle of big city comes young, attractive and naively innocent Nancy Jones (Rita Tushingham), the metaphor for a woman coming of age. Her unfamiliarity with how things work in the big city (eg the luggage lockers at the station) demonstrate how she's unaware of how relationships in her life work now that she's unwittingly become an object of sexual desire. And even though she's free of any notion of sexual promiscuity, the fact that she looks beautiful means that the public automatically assume she's 'up for it' and putting herself around, hence she's the target of criticisms from the older onlookers. However, women soon learn not to take men's smooth-talk at face value, witnessed by the scene in the clothes store where Nancy catches the salesman out giving the same compliments to every female customer who comes in.
Then there's the young man, and he comes in three forms. First, there's Tolen (Ray Brooks), the man who's successful at pulling the women. At the start of the film we see dozens of slim, curvy women all dressed identically, queuing up to enter his bedroom, symbolising the numbers he goes through to satisfy his desires without him ever seeing them as individual people - they're all just sex objects in his eyes. Tolen never uses his first name, nor will he reveal it, suggesting that there are aspects of his character that he had to shed or suppress in order to achieve and maintain his status as the great lover.
Then there's Colin (Michael Crawford), the man who wants sex but can't get it, and his carnal desires border on the downright lustful at times, hence he sees himself as being one of the dirty old men peering through the fence as the teenage schoolgirls play sports. He's jealous of Tolen's success with women. First of all he tries to learn from him, and the water-skiing episode shows him just trailing far behind in Tolen's wake, finding himself out of his depth. Then he tries competing against him, thinking that it's just a question of having the right equipment to attract the opposite sex, so he gets himself a bigger bed. Size envy?
And then there's Tom (Donal Donnelly), the man who's more interested in his hobby to think much about sex. His passionate hobby (in this case, painting everything white) is of no interest to anyone else, but unincumbered by sexual thoughts he's a benign presence who's a genuine friend to everyone, behaving as he does without any hidden agenda.
So, events transpire to bring Nancy together with the three men. Tom is just friendly towards her. Colin is smitten with her. Tolen sees her as just another potential conquest. He commences his method of being dominant. Colin, meanwhile, should be dominant also as he's fooling around pretending to be a lion, but he just shows how hapless he is, whereas Tolen is far more dominant in his role of 'lion tamer' and soon has Nancy under his spell.
But there's a fine line between dominance and force. When Nancy claims rape, all three men quickly shy away from her - although no one else in society, it seems, is interested in her claims, perhaps a reflection on the times that people would easily judge a girl by assuming that just because she happened to be good-looking she must have been asking for it.
There's another man in the plot, though we never see him. Rory is mentioned early on by Tolen as another man who is a hit with the girls. Tolen doesn't see him as a serious rival at that stage, but wants to be associated with him, thinking it will be to his own benefit. There are further references to Rory later in the film, suggesting he is becoming a bigger hit with the women. And by the latter stages, when Tolen's confidence and reputation are crumbling after Nancy's claims, Tolen finds the hard way that the women are now only interested in Rory and not him. He had not appreciated the transient nature of his status as the top dog in town, and the girls have now all moved on to the next big thing.
We never see Colin finally 'get his leg over', but his relationship with Nancy blossoms as she builds his confidence, allowing him to be himself rather than trying to be like Tolen. The film ends with him and Nancy walking off together to share a future that will be meaningful while, significantly, Tolen watches from the sidelines, having suddenly joined the ranks of the bitter, jealous older generation.
The film's style, which includes lots of imagery and various instances of trick effects, would have seemed far more innovative back in the mid-1960s than is the case nowadays. For instance, there's a sequence involving the characters going into and coming out of lots of different doors, an idea that's been put to use many times since in things like Scooby Doo cartoons, so in that respect it probably hasn't aged well. A lot of the comedy just isn't that funny (an example being Colin picking up a milk crate thinking it's his briefcase, whilst the unwitting milkman has picked up Colin's briefcase) and the five minutes of screentime where Rita Tushingham continually says "Rape!" in a light-hearted manner is rather uncomfortable, given that it should never be a light-hearted subject.
However, The Knack is lively and original, and has depth. It will certainly quickly alienate many viewers, but should also still have the power to win a few fans. 6 out of 10.