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Posted by Kimmy Sophia Brown
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On our maiden movie murmuration, I would like to recommend
one of our all time favorite movies, Enchanted
April, which features a stellar
cast: Josie Lawrence, Joan Plowright, Polly Walker, Miranda Richardson,
Michael Kitchen, Jim Broadbent and Alfred Molina.
I read a review on Amazon.com, that said that you can feel
your pulse slow down while watching this movie. It’s true. It has been said,
that sometimes the whole of a thing is more than the sum of its parts. That
expression applies to this movie. It has a villa. It has rocks, flowers and
sunlight. It has four women of diverse personalities who are beautiful in their
own way. They rent the villa on an island off the coast of Italy on the
Mediterranean Sea. Two of them have unfulfilling marriages, a third is an
elderly woman who lives in the past among her books and their deceased authors,
and the fourth is a rich girl who wants to get away from the unwanted attention
of grabbing men. As the women emerge from their various forms of emotional
hibernation they begin to heal.
Their various struggles gradually dissipate and solutions
begin to emerge for each of them, as they soak in the Italian sun and enjoy the
flowers and the quiet. Relationships heal, friendships bloom, redemption and
joy begin to warm their souls. Lottie, (played by Josie Lawrence with humor and
pathos), is the first to realize her desire to give love to her oblivious and
self-centered husband, Mellersh, played by Alfred Molina. At one point, Lottie
says to Rose;
“This place makes me feel flooded with love. The great
thing is to have lots of love about. I was a stingy beast at home, and
used to measure and count. I had a queer obsession about justice. It’s only
love that’s any good. At home I wouldn’t love Mellersh unless he loved me back,
exactly as much, absolute fairness. Did you ever. And as he didn’t, neither did
I, and the emptiness of it all!”
The proper and reserved Rose (played with grace and depth
by Miranda Richardson) finds a chance to rekindle love with her wayward
husband, Frederick (played with varying degrees of repulsiveness and sweetness
by Jim Broadbent). Mrs. Fisher, (Joan Plowright) finds her ascerbic and
over-prickly demeanor warmed by Lottie and San Salvatore, the villa, itself.
Lady Caroline Dester, played by the exotically beautiful, Polly Walker, finds
her chance to rest in the sun and begin to nurture herself as she begins to
understand the value of internal beauty in herself and others. This occurs
especially when she meets San Salvatore’s near-sighted landlord, played by the
ever delightful, Michael Kitchen.
Critics have berated the movie for emphasizing the notion
of the fulfillment of love as a worthy plot line. As if the desire for love and
happiness is formulaic and trite. Well, this film could so easily have gone
sicky-sweet, but instead, the performances are masterfully subtle and the story
is delicately understated. Many of the shots look to be inspired by Pre-Raphaelite
art, with beautiful women wearing silk kimonos in sunlit gardens. It is a movie
about hope, and it quenches the world-weary soul.
I recently read an interview with Quentin Tarentino (Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bill) and he made these remarks
about the British film industry:
“When I first came here in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs (1992)
the film industry was very dire. The
movies were Enchanted April (1992) and crap like that. But that has changed, and this year has highlighted how
it’s changed. You guys actually have a genuine honest-to-goodness, bona fide
film industry again, and that is fantastic.”
Quentin seems to have totally missed the point of this
movie. Perhaps when Quentin, (who seems to be a good story teller), gets all
the violence out of his system, he might like to give it another look and maybe
his soul will be fed by it too. There are many sides to life and the side
presented by this exceptional film has great depth in the simplicity of its
message.
It’s the sort of movie I intend to buy on DVD as gifts for
dozens of friends, for years to come.
