Sir Leonard Darwin Sting as Mick Ian McKellen as Sir Andrew Charleson Sam Neill as Lazar Burt Kwouk as Mr Aung Pik-Sen Lim as Mme Aung Reception Critical response Plenty was met with mixed reviews upon release. It holds a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 16 critics. Movie critic Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. He said that Streep gave "a performance of great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm... Streep creates a whole character around a woman who could have simply been a catalogue of symptoms.". Cultural and literary critic Tiffany Gilbert suggests that the "Englishness" that scriptwriter David Hare regarded as an essential theme of the movie was inescapably diminished by the casting of Hollywood star Meryl Streep as Susan: "[…] it inevitably loses some of its political edge[…] in ceding to the Hollywood fame machine." (albeit it had been a Canadian actor, Kate Nelligan, who had originally taken the part on the London and New York stages). Nelligan had played the part as a strong and capable woman, whereas Streep's depiction of neurosis transformed the play into a typical "Hollywood product". Awards Ullman and Gielgud were nominated for BAFTA Awards and Gielgud was named Best Supporting Actor by both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics. Novel A tie-in-novel by Andrew Osmond built on the movie's popularity with a pulp account of the post-war life of Lazar, Susan's lover. References External links 1985 films 1985 drama films Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios British films based on plays Films directed by Fred Schepisi Films scored by Bruce Smeaton Films shot in Belgium Plays by David Hare American drama films British drama films Films set in the 1940s Films set in the 1950s Films set in the 1960s RKO Pictures films Films about the French Resistance British World War II films American World War II films Suez Crisis films Films set in 1943 Films set in 1945 Films set in 1953 Films set in 1956 Films set in Brussels Films set in London Films set in 1962 1980s English-language films 1980s American films 1980s British films