The Bookshop
(2017)Emily Mortimer (The Party) stars in this small town drama as a woman who opens up a bookshop against stiff competition. For 1959 England, the move puts her in a politically prickly position. Written and directed by Isabel Coixet, co-starring Bill Nighy (Their Finest) and Patricia Clarkson (who led Coixet's Learning to Drive).
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Directed by Isabel Coixet
Starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, Hunter Tremayne, Honor Kneafsey, James Lance, Frances Barber, Reg Wilson
Written by Isabel Coixet (based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald)
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The Bookshop
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A fine, sensitive leading turn from Emily Mortimer helps shore up these quiet, lightly dust-covered proceedings, but can't quite put "The Bookshop" in the black. Full Review
Coixet's script is a long way off perfect, but it's the least of her problems; the second least is the film's dirge of a score, but even that's a bummer. Full Review
Ironically, given the subject, the script is stilted, with actors often stuck on pause and not even the silver-tongued Nighy able to coax more than a laugh or two from his lines. Full Review
Its subversive undercurrent, embodied in fine performances by Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy, is what makes it really interesting. Full Review
It doesn't help that the film is pulverised by wall-to-wall narration. Full Review
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it does get you in, and has subtle strengths which are not initially apparent. Full Review
A fine advertisement for its namesake. Buy the book and stay home. Full Review
BY Adam Fresco Flicks Writer
Spanish director Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life of Words and Learning to Drive) adapts Penelope Fitzgerald's novel with a great cast in a ho-hum film. It’s 1959 in the fictional English seaside town of Hardborough. Spirited widow Florence (a mischievous Emily Mortimer) turns a dilapidated old house into a bookshop. Despite the opposition of local shopkeepers, led by busy-body Mrs Gamart (brought to obnoxious life by Patricia Clarkson), the bookshop thrives. Amongst the customers is Edmund (Bill Nighy in top mournful form), an avid reader and no fan of the buttoned-up community in which he lives. It’s not long before Ed and Flo develop a friendship, communicated largely via the books she recommends him.... More
Well-crafted and performed, The Bookshop boasts a fine supporting cast playing a host of eccentric characters, and some beautiful cinematography, contrasting the bleak town with the vibrancy of the bookshop’s shelves. A slow and steady study of the passive-aggressive bullying tactics of “polite” society, reminiscent of Joanne Harris’ novel (and Lasse Hallström’s subsequent movie) Chocolat, but lacking its adult-fairy-tale magic. Scenes in which blinkered Brits are awakened by the “shocking” novels, from Lolita to Fahrenheit 451, entertain, but like the film’s core critique of social affectation as a mask for meanness beneath, it feels odd in a movie grounded in reality rather than allegorical fantasy.
Measured and thoughtful, yet emotionally unengaging, it’s a meandering tale made enjoyable largely by the performances of its three lead actors.Hide
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