The Bookshop (2017)

Beautiful movie! I was really taken by the plot and acting, it felt like real life to me. But I want a little bit more from the movie than I expect from reality. And most of all I don't want to be told what's right or wrong, black or white. Unfortunately this message is very clear here. We have evil from one side and good personified by the main character. As much as I enjoyed the film I felt certain luck of depth.

Firstly I've got to say what a great cast this film has, from Bill Nighy as the curmudgeonly old bookworm, to Emily Mortimer as the ever hopeful would-be bookshop owner. The story though, is an absolute letdown. From the moment it begins you know exactly how it's going to end. It's also flat, without tempo or any semblance of cadence. It's like watching Waiting for Godot when somebody has already told you that (spoiler alert) Godot's not coming. It is both unoriginal and uneventful, with an ending that left most of the audience in the cinema murmuring 'oh' and 'is that it?' I really can't recommend it.

In 1959, Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) buys the dilapidated 'Old House' in the small coastal town of Hardborough, East Anglia, takes over the unsold stock of a business in London that has closed, and opens a bookshop. Reading is not a past-time that's widely popular in Hardborough. The townsfolk are convinced that the bookshop of kind-hearted Mrs Green, widowed during World War II, will fail - not for economic reasons or lack of readers but because the formidable, ruthless and vindictive Mrs Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), self-appointed patroness of all public activities in the town, wants 'Old House' to be an Arts and Cultural Centre. Florence does have supporters. There's young Christine (Honor Kneafsey), worldly beyond her years, who helps out after school; and Edmund Brundish (Bill Nighy), the local squire, a voracious reader and Florence's best customer. The film moves at a leisurely pace. A pace that allows us time to appreciate whatever is on the screen, be it conflict, embarrassment, unresolved tension or moments of reflection. A pace that allows time for the cinematographer (Jean-Claude Larrieu) to linger on water, trees, fields and tall grass wavering in the wind. Isabel Coixet, the director, wrote the screenplay which she based on a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. The movie - filmed in County Down, Northern Ireland and Barcelona, Spain - won three of Spain's Goya Awards (best film; best director; best adapted screenplay) earlier this year. The cast performs magnificently. Florence: naïve, courageous, and trusting; Christine: precocious and determined; Edmund: reclusive and supportive; Violet: persuasive, highly motivated, and effective. This painfully tender movie - rigorously unsentimental - wormed its way into my affections. It's a film that touches the emotions with an ending that's bitter-sweet.

I wanted to like this film, I really did. Its nicely set, the costumes and the feeling of the time and place are quite accurate. The story is ok. Its just so very flat a film. I don't mind slowly paced films, but to make up for the lack of pace they need to be charming, or witty, or nuanced.....or at the very least original. All through this film I thought of Chocolat. Similar premise in both, but Chocolat is better scripted, acted and directed. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with The Bookshop, it just underwhelms. Maybe I should have watched it on a lazy Sunday afternoon, it passes the time harmlessly. A bit like a BBC period drama.