The amazing Dame Maggie Smith has had many great roles in her career, and on film she has played a variety of characters, from the corruptible Miss Jean Brodie, the acerbic but fun loving Dora Charles in "Murder by Death", the rigid cousin Charlotte in "A Room with a View, and currently the role which introduced her to millions who otherwise may not have known her, the Lady Grantham on BBC's "Downton Abbey".
In "Travels With my Aunt" she is a 70 year old eccentric woman who mysteriously appears at a strange woman's funeral, and claims to be her sister, thus adopting her suppose it nephew home she engages in a series of wacky adventures. Along the way, he finds himself learning more about life and he could ever hope to imagine while she flashes back to the truth of her real past which isn't a life to be quietly dismissed.
The alleged nephew is Alec McGowan, a rather square peg who is easily manipulated by her lust for life and is easily taken for a literal ride BT her. Along the way she introduces him to drifter Cindy Williams and her black companion, Louis Gossett Jr. She tells him of her many affairs which the audience gets to see through some magnificently filmed flashbacks. In period costume, she is absolutely ravishing and while in a scene depicting her as a teenager, she does not appear to be under 30. I actually thought she resembled Vanessa Redgrave in those scenes. The 20's period costumes fit her very well, clad in outfits that her TV granddaughters would definitely be wearing.
As the truth about her erupts, the real motivations are exposed and it isn't what you think. This is definitely not a rip-off of "Auntie Mame" which some reviewers have suggested although the moral of live life to the fullest and give yourself to others to make their lives a little better is loud and clear.
The film was to be a reunion for director George Cukor and Katharine Hepburn, but that did work our. Hepburn's original casting may give way to the fact that the costumes look very Hepburn in style. The current career of Dame Maggie is very comparable to Hepburn's later career which is why some people, myself included, consider Dame Maggie a modern day British version of Hepburn.
The film is certainly very theatrical and an artistic way of looking at life that pragmatic people may frown upon. So this may not appeal to the sensible, the non-dreamers, the dreary. Stay behind then and leave thus voyage to us. I'll take this aunt any day. She knows where the banquet is.
In "Travels With my Aunt" she is a 70 year old eccentric woman who mysteriously appears at a strange woman's funeral, and claims to be her sister, thus adopting her suppose it nephew home she engages in a series of wacky adventures. Along the way, he finds himself learning more about life and he could ever hope to imagine while she flashes back to the truth of her real past which isn't a life to be quietly dismissed.
The alleged nephew is Alec McGowan, a rather square peg who is easily manipulated by her lust for life and is easily taken for a literal ride BT her. Along the way she introduces him to drifter Cindy Williams and her black companion, Louis Gossett Jr. She tells him of her many affairs which the audience gets to see through some magnificently filmed flashbacks. In period costume, she is absolutely ravishing and while in a scene depicting her as a teenager, she does not appear to be under 30. I actually thought she resembled Vanessa Redgrave in those scenes. The 20's period costumes fit her very well, clad in outfits that her TV granddaughters would definitely be wearing.
As the truth about her erupts, the real motivations are exposed and it isn't what you think. This is definitely not a rip-off of "Auntie Mame" which some reviewers have suggested although the moral of live life to the fullest and give yourself to others to make their lives a little better is loud and clear.
The film was to be a reunion for director George Cukor and Katharine Hepburn, but that did work our. Hepburn's original casting may give way to the fact that the costumes look very Hepburn in style. The current career of Dame Maggie is very comparable to Hepburn's later career which is why some people, myself included, consider Dame Maggie a modern day British version of Hepburn.
The film is certainly very theatrical and an artistic way of looking at life that pragmatic people may frown upon. So this may not appeal to the sensible, the non-dreamers, the dreary. Stay behind then and leave thus voyage to us. I'll take this aunt any day. She knows where the banquet is.