Beautiful and languid, this story of a young widow faced with challenges opening a bookshop in a 1959 small English seacoast town is not for the impatient. Jack and I liked it a lot. He pointed out the star Emily Mortimer (last blogged for The Party) almost always plays sweet characters, though sometimes frustrated, and her determined Florence Green is no exception. Patricia Clarkson's (most recently starred in The Party) Violet Gamart, however, is syrupy on the outside and pure evil on the inside, like an arsenic pancake. Bill Nighy (last in Their Finest) is reliably good as the eccentric hermit Mr. Brundish who in one scene refers to Mrs. Gamart as a harpy. 14 year old Honor Kneafsey (credits for the past seven years), with her angelic face and halo of ginger curls, is delightful as the saucy Christine.
Spanish director Isabel Coixet (her other appearance in these pages was for Elegy) adapted the Penelope Fitzgerald 1978 novel into this screenplay. It could have moved faster, but then we would not have seen the emotions washing over Mortimer's face, much as the wind blows the flora of the Northern Ireland locations, shot by Jean-Claude Larrieu (cinematography for Elegy, Queen to Play, Julieta, and much more).
Special note for the magnificent costumes by Mercé Paloma (new to me) with intricate detailing in buttons, etc.
Composer Alfonso de Vilallonga is also new to me. His dreamy string-rich score can be streamed from this spotify playlist.
The Rotten Tomatoes' critics' consensus of 55% (its audiences even worse at 47) blames the "meandering pace." Whatever. We enjoyed it!
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