And although the conceit that this was made for an audience of one is a misleading one I did understand what they meant, as in "this is one I think you will really enjoy." and on that level they were entirely right. It was a fantastic piece of work and one I will never forget. I felt myself gripped by this poignant work which was by turns funny and sad and always engaging. It is so wonderfully performed and beautiful to look at. Set in a remote village with a population stepped straight out of an Agatha Christie or E.F. Benson novel, it is glowered over by very Northern Irish clouds (I believe it was filmed somewhere in Northern Ireland, Strangford Loch or somewhere like that.) and there are scenes on wind swept beaches with lonely grasses waving like melancholy blooms. They are the sort of beaches where if one was to find a whistle, best to just throw it in the sea. The kind of wind they would whistle up would not be a welcome one. just check out MR James to understand what I mean by this.....Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You.
The story at the heart of this movie concerns a woman, a widow, who attempts to make a fresh start for herself in life by following her dream of opening a small bookstore in an old neglected house which sits on the main street of the village. This simple and quite inspirational act attracts the ire and jealous spite of the local queen bee, a soulless aristocrat who vomits faux culture over anyone unfortunate enough to come near her. This Ice queen summons her wingless monkeys and they set about undermining and wrecking this courageous woman's dream and so doing rip the heart and soul away, by increments, cruelly and maliciously.She has her friends, she has her supporters, she has people who genuinely love her but it is a bullies game and they hold all the cards.
As I said, this is a beautifully crafted piece of work with all involved giving a hundred and ten per cent. I know it was based on a novel by Penelope Livesey but it all felt so real and entirely plausible I thought "This has to be true.". For those book lovers out there watch a story about a dream confounded and for those story lovers out there here is something special.
