IMDb plot summary: The very eccentric Groomkirby family, in between inventing odd devices, decide to reenact a murder and trial in their living room.
Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Eric Sykes, George Cole, and Julia Foster.
One Way Pendulum is an extremely silly look at an eccentric family living in Britain. There's not a narrative so much as just a series of events: one family member is teaching weight machines how to sing, another reconstructs an entire courtroom in their living room. It reminds me a bit of You Can't Take It With You, except a whole lot goofier. While I did find myself wishing for a more cohesive narrative arc, there were definitely enough moments in this that made me laugh out loud. There's especially some fun witty wordplay in the courtroom scenes, and they kept me entertained enough that I didn't feel the lack of narrative cohesion. I wish the first half of the movie was equally *busy* in its goofiness -- it felt mostly like setup that doesn't get resolved, but if it had been as full of gags as the latter half I think I'd have enjoyed the whole thing quite a bit. It's definitely something unique, and while it doesn't all hold together, there was enough fun about it that I'm certainly glad I saw it.
How it entered my Flickchart:
One Way Pendulum > Camp
One Way Pendulum < Safe
One Way Pendulum < A Scanner Darkly
One Way Pendulum < The Ladykillers (1955)
One Way Pendulum > Swingers
One Way Pendulum > Meek's Cutoff
One Way Pendulum > Away We Go
One Way Pendulum > Oblivion
One Way Pendulum > Happy-Go-Lucky
One Way Pendulum < Fly Away Home
One Way Pendulum < Muppet Treasure Island
One Way Pendulum < Skater Girl
Final spot: #1625 out of 3699, or 56%.
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