Review of The Private Life of Samuel Pepys

This is the movie that Steve Coogan said he wanted to make. His desire was to play someone morally ambiguous and he succeeded brilliantly! His Samuel Pepys was a real person, complex, desiring to be good, and yet aware that society and his own nature conspired against him. Lou Doillion as Elisabeth and Sally Rogers as Betty are also superb - and although when I started watching, I was afraid I would keep seeing Alan Partridge, that wasn't the case. The dialogue was witty, the story well told (brilliantly, in fact) and other standout characters were Will Hewer and Lord Montagu, cleverly cynical and tolerant of Pepys' earnest concern for his job and doing the best in a society that expected him to be corrupt. All praise to the writer and all the actors.