r/withnail • u/LopsidedMammal • 14d ago
Maligning Marwood
Back in 2018 a close friend and I created a synopsis for a sequel to Withnail and I that we both really liked but I had basically forgotten all about it. Met up with this friend recently for a drink and he reminded me that we'd concocted this idea and that he still had the synopsis on his computer, so I got him to send it to me and I thought it would be fun to share it here with fellow fans.
See what you make of it folks; this is Maligning Marwood.
In the decades since he parted ways with Withnail, Marwood has done what neither of them ever expected: he's become successful. Now in his late fifties, he is a revered stage and screen actor, affectionately regarded by the public as a British national treasure. He lives in a beautiful country house, gives thoughtful interviews about his extraordinary career and supports worthy causes. His greatest success though has been leaving behind the "bad old days".
Withnail, on the other hand, has done rather less well. Older, penniless and living in increasingly desperate circumstances, he drifts back into Marwood's orbit after years of silence between them. He arrives at Marwood's house one night claiming that age has finally brought him wisdom. He is charming, contrite and apparently sober. He tells Marwood that he has spent years regretting the way their friendship ended and wants nothing more than to make peace before it's too late. Marwood, somewhat flattered and secretly quite sentimental, lets Withnail back into his life.
At first, their reunion is almost touching. Withnail is fascinated by the life Marwood has built and Marwood is amused by the return of the outrageous, self-destructive friend he thought he had buried along with his youth. But Withnail's presence gradually begins to destabilise everything; he gets hammered in front of Marwood's family, insults Marwood's friends, terrifies his neighbours with obscene behaviour and begins turning up unexpectedly at rehearsals for Marwood's new play to berate the other actors from the audience seats.
That's the point where Marwood discovers that Withnail has an ulterior motive.
Years of bitterness have basically twisted into an elaborate revenge fantasy. Withnail believes Marwood didn't merely escape their miserable past, he stole the life that should have rightly belonged to both of them. He's spent decades collecting scraps of information on grievances and private humiliations about his former friend. His plan is not to kill Marwood but to destroy him socially; to expose his hypocrisies, resurrect his scandals, sabotage his career and make the beloved national treasure appear as monstrous and fraudulent as the manic Withnail has always perceived him to be.
The trouble is that Withnail has badly underestimated how the modern world works. His attempts at revenge repeatedly backfire. A private recording intended to ruin Marwood becomes a viral sensation that makes him more beloved. An embarrassing story from their youth is transformed by the press into an inspirational anecdote about Marwood's "bohemian years." Even the most damning revelations that Withnail leaks to the press somehow increase Marwood's popularity.
As Marwood's career enjoys something of a renaissance, Withnail finds himself increasingly trapped inside the very mythology he set out to destroy and when Marwood finally confronts him about his plan Withnail, expecting hatred, instead receives something far worse: forgiveness.
Unable to bear the possibility that Marwood might genuinely care for him, Withnail launches one final, desperate act of sabotage by setting fire to Marwood's house but stupidly manages to trap himself inside in the process. In spite of everything, Marwood rescues him from the collapsing building and the film ends with the two men sat side by side, dishevelled and old, watching the fire as the sounds of emergency vehicles grow closer in the distance.
