CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Mandeep Tyson
The acting in this movie is really good.
Tweekums
When this series first aired in 1992 it was considered rather racy due to the characters' unconventional attitude to sex and the handful of nude scenes now it seems far less shocking. The story is told in flashback as the characters head to a funeral in west Cornwall. On the way they reminisce about their time together around the time of the Second World War. We are introduced to them as they enjoy one last summer together in Cornwall before the war. Once the war starts Polly and Calypso head to London and young Sophy is sent to a boarding school. Their love lives are unconventional to say the least Calypso is determined to marry a rich man but when she does she is more than happy to take other lovers, Polly can't decide which twin she wants to be with so has both and Helena has an affair with Jewish refugee Max while her husband Richard is left with Max's wife.This might sound like the plot from a particularly melodramatic soap opera but thankfully it doesn't feel like that due to the excellent acting from Felicity Kendal, Tara Fitzgerald, Jennifer Ehle and Rebecca Hall as Helena, Polly, Calypso and Sophy and Paul Eddington as Richard. As it is set during the war there is a constant feeling that characters could die and at least one is killed, although we obviously know that certain characters will survive as we have seen them in the present. I liked how the story was presented in flashback as the surviving characters told their story to the next generation on the way to the funeral; this somehow gave it a greater degree of believability perhaps because their reaction to hearing the story mirrored the viewers.
hjmsia49
Those of us who lived through WWII may be taken aback by the characters in this film which are at odds with our impressions of the staid Brits during that era. The assertion that some of their bizarre conduct was a result of the war is not totally convincing. The cast is uniformly excellent especially Felicity Kendal as Helene and Rebecca Hall as a young Sophy. Oliver Cotten was convincing as the lecherous Max although I felt his German tirades were a bit overdone. Those of us who have only seen Jennifer Ehle in "Pride and Prejudice" will be very surprised at her radically different portrayal of the amoral young Calypso. I do feel that some of the nudity and graphic language was gratuitous and prevented the film from reaching the larger audience it deserved. I found a certain irony in the beginning and end of the film. In the opening scenes, young Oliver and young Sophy discuss the evils of fascism and in the final scene old Oliver and old Sophy drive away in a Volkswagon Beetle. Their long delayed reunion had a striking similarity to that of Lionel and Jean in "As Time Goes By." The editing of only a few scenes would have given greater circulation to the film.
TheEnglishman
A story about a family (and associated friends) where most of the characters are either selfish or inadequate seems an unlikely hit, but I continue to find this one of my favorite winter evening viewings. The story is told, as in the book, with flash-forwards that help crystallize your opinions of the characters and their motivations. With promiscuous behavior throughout, various unconventional relationships (Polly and the twins, Max and his town wife/country wife etc), it would have been all too easy for the series to dissolve into an orgy of explicit sex; this was, after all, made by Channel 4, who can teach HBO a thing or too about the subject! It runs along a pace, and as each episode ends, the temptation to just press play and watch the next is strong.The performances are wonderful. I loved Felicity Kendall as the bad-tempered matriarch in the flash-forwards. Jennifer Ehle is, of course, delectable, and completely gorgeous, and acts the pants off everyone. Her accent is a wonderful mids-40s upper-class English, taken straight from Brief Encounter and the like. I didn't realize until today that she was born in North Carolina, I had her marked an English rose! Tara Fitzgerald plays Polly, the most likable character, a strong, self-minded and tolerant person. The male characters are weaker, but Oliver Cotton and the late Paul Eddington make the best of the material they're given.The production is great - period detail is excellent, although perhaps the grimness of war on the Home Front is not given enough emphasis. However, these are privileged people, they would have had it better than the masses simply because they had more to start with.You can watch this series over and over, like rereading a favorite book.
notmicro
I'd been curious for years to see this thing, both because of the very interesting actors, and the period setting. Now I've just watched the British DVD, and found that its absolutely brilliantly done, and compulsively watchable. Its basically the saga of an "extended family" from 1939 to 1984, focusing on the females - all of them quite lively, and several of whom have luckily married into money. The characters are admittedly somewhat shallow and self-centered, but nevertheless fascinating. The acting and direction are so wonderful, and the story is so intriguing and amusing, that it all just flies by, leaving you wanting more. I suspect that this is one of those rare times when the "film-version" improves on the original book. Kudos to Channel 4 for having successfully tackled another edgy piece of material.It takes some time getting accustomed to the affected and presumably somewhat archaic upper-middle-class accents assumed by some of the actors. The occasionally plummy and arch dialog, particularly between Calypso and Oliver, started to remind me strongly of watching Rex Harrison and his wives elegantly sniping at each other in "Blithe Spirit (1945)". As an American this blows right by me; I can only guess that, for the UK audience, the accents will place the characters very firmly in time, place, and class.Trivia note: young Sophy is played by Rebecca Hall, who is the daughter of the director Peter Hall. She turns in an amazing performance.
