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25 out of 28 people found the following review useful: You have to be English to appreciate this, 17 August 2005 Author: rjbrad from United Kingdom
I am posting this submission partly in reaction to the last one currently on the site, which gave the movie the thumbs down. Then its author revealed that he had spent American currency hiring the video and I thought: aha, so that's why.This film partly celebrates a piece of rural, Northern England and it really does help if you live there, which I do. (I could even take you to the railway station where the early scenes were shot, featuring incidentally the most unconvincing screen rain I have ever seen! it also stars in the first Harry Potter movie) The delicious soundtrack could only have been composed by someone steeped in Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. Only a man who knows if not at first hand then at least by intimate report the rivalry between "church" and "chapel" - which still persists in these parts - could have written that scene in the organ shop.It's not an action movie but rather one that moves with the languid pace of a summer that feels as if it should be Edwardian, but that era is a dream now. There are dark ripples below the sunny surface. Birken's nervous tic, the nightmares of the trenches, the casual debauchery of Moon, are the aftertaste of WW1's horror. What of Christian faith after such slaughter? There is the simple Phillistine chapel culture, its weary preacher still ranting at his congregation about their sins, unaware that the war has made private transgression seem utterly trivial. There is the cold liturgical worship offered by the pious, buttoned up, tight-fisted Rev Keach. Birken finds no meaning in either, and immerses himself in the work of restoring a masterpiece from an age when faith still gripped the psyche, hoping perhaps to draw something of its historic power into himself. Moon - Branagh's character - is shallow by comparison, idle, serene, detached.The scenes with Birken and Alice Keach are little gems of implication and understatement, she - it seems knowingly - playing Eve, complete with temptress's apple, to Birken's Adam. The potential for an affair is manifest, but we sense nothing will come of it, and in the last scene of the movie Birken is seen throwing away an apple core.Branagh would go on to greater things; this is Colin Firth's film and while his celebrity rating has soared since he made it, I doubt he will ever turn in a performance that surpasses it in subtlety and richness.But to end as I began: this is not a movie that I would expect to travel well. You really need to be English appreciate it - heck, I've seen American movies that washed right over me because I don't understand the rules of baseball!
16 out of 16 people found the following review useful: A quiet, moving and intelligent film, 31 August 2005 Author: bradwan from Bradford, United Kingdom
As the person responsible for persuading Channel 4 to release this film on DVD for the first time I obviously hold a candle for this film. I knew the author of the novel, Carr, and spent a long time finding a print and the right holders. I didn't see it until the first showing for a decade, at my own book's launch, and I was stunned by how good, and how close to the book, it was. It is very quiet and very English. You will either fall in love with it, or miss the point and get bored. I doubt there is much middle ground. Kenneth Branagh is very proud of the film and Colin Firth rates it as one of his best ever performances. You should find more about my finding of the film on my bradwan site.
11 out of 11 people found the following review useful: A gem to be rewatched again and again., 15 November 2000 Author: KJArt from Whidbey Island, WA
I think this is the most-watched movie in my collection. Its strong passions are beautifully understated by the entire ensemble, which is the thing that I appreciate most in this film. All the cast are excellent, including the children (and I must add a special appreciation for Jim Carter, who has played opposite Firth in at least two other films that I know of), but this is an absolute tour de force for both Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh. The viewer seems to share the pain and humiliation borne by the sufferers of "shell shock". Their encounters with the joy and grief inherent in the life and people of a small Yorkshire village are both poignant and humorous.The slow pace enriches the character development and story. It mirrors the patient process of both leading characters' pursuits: Firth's character uncovers a medieval church mural slowly and carefully, as Branagh's seeks and uncovers a mysterious grave. Both work with an audience of curious local villagers by day, and wrestle with their personal demons by night. Slowly new bittersweet relationships develop as the summer progresses. I pity the impatient of this world who can't focus their attention long enough to take in or appreciate the rich content of the performances, the subtle direction, the beauty of both the cinematography and the music.This movie is a gentle and uplifting experience each time it is viewed! A movie to be savored. I highly recommend it!
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Wonderful film, 16 September 2005 Author: tanter-1 from Texas
I have only seen this film twice because it was shown on cable and I've never been able to find it since. It is beautifully filmed and it really captures the essence of ART. No sex, no bad language, nothing objectionable, just pure film, pure cinema. Colin Firth is beautiful in this--he plays the character just right, a bit of angst, a bit of frustration and a whole lot of artist. Kenneth Branagh isn't bad either, and I don't always love him. One thing that makes this film so beautiful is the lighting. It's rarely dark--there's lots of sun and color, just like a landscape painting. They were very careful to make this a film about art and it's very successful. If you like Colin, you'll love this movie.
10 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Colin Firth at his best!!!, 20 August 1999 Author: catherine desgranges (catherinedesgranges@yahoo.com) from Montreal, Canada
It's a love story about rebirth and self healing. The foundation of the plot seems very simple: a young man comes in a town to clean the wall of a church. With a subject like that it could be absolutely boring...but it's not. "Emotion" could be the word to describe it all, though "repressed emotion" would be even more accurate. It's a delicate movie, with thousands of details you might not see the first time; it's deep and truly is a masterpiece in its genre.Of course to appreciate it you must love repertoire movies. It's not a blockbuster movie...far from that. You must be in a slow mood I guess to enjoy it.This is the kind of movie I would like to keep in my collection: isn't it a pity that "anonymous" has probably sold his tape already? (I cannot find it in Montreal!)
9 out of 9 people found the following review useful: The last movements of a phantom limb, 21 November 2000 Author: blessed_damosel (blessed_damosel@yahoo.com) from Rutland, England
When an arm or leg is removed, the amputee can continue to 'feel' it for some time afterwards. The phantom limb can hurt, or itch, or feel cold. But nothing is truly the same.Similarly, the First World War irrevocably altered Britain, but in its immediate aftermath we limped on, unaware (or unwilling to admit) that anything had changed. It's this brief period of denial that Month in the Country illustrates: the moment when we teetered on the edge of the 19th century before toppling into the 20th.Consequently, while it is a film of great heartbreak and loss, it is also one of great hope and triumph of the human spirit. There is one scene that perfectly illustrates this: a little girl visits her friend, who is sick in bed. She talks about the weather and her new hat and how they'll play together when her friend gets well. Then as she walks back home she says to Colin Firth'She knows she's dying, doesn't she?'It is as tragic for the girl to be so knowing and capable in the face of death as it is for young men to have experienced the hell of the trenches and return to indifference and hostility. But because of that tragedy they will go on to experience a more real, and potentially more joyful world, than the other inhabitants of comfortable and conventional Oxgodby.
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Renewal for the soul, 12 July 2001 Author: Peegee-3 (poetsrx@webtv.net) from Santa Monica, CA
I've just watched this haunting movie for the second time, after an interval of several years and having just read the book on which it's based. I feel as though the director,actors, cinematographer took a walk inside my head to pluck the images that lived there as I read the book. Of course, it was those images inside THEIR heads that have made this film the masterpiece that it is...to enrich the heart, restore the soul. Colin Firth brought the character, Tom Birkin, so fully into life, with his sensitivity, conflicts, process of restoration (both as a skilled worker and as a damaged human being) and yearnings one wonders why such roles as this haven't been offered him since. His brooding Mr Darcy in the TV version of "Pride and Prejudice" used some of these talents, but not nearly enough. Kenneth Branagh's fine understated playing of the equally war damaged archaelogist (and a closet homosexual) is amazing and brilliant, considering especially his over-the-top performances in later films. Lovely Natasha Richardson creates just the right tone of controlled longing of the unhappily married Alice Keagh. Jim Carter and the rest of the cast are splendid as well. This is a film to return to again and again for its visual and soulful beauty, simplicity and depth. What an antidote for the juvenile,frentic blockbuster fare we're offered for the most part by the movie "business."
9 out of 10 people found the following review useful: this is one of my all time favorite films. beautiful, 2 November 2000 Author: pmoran-3 (pmoran@nycap.rr.com)
From the opening moments when Firth gets off the train in the rain, and arrives in Oxgodby, this film is almost perfectly done. The acting, by Firth and Branaugh and Malahyde is fine, and believable. Firth arrives to restore a painting on a church wall. Shell -shocked from his service in France, and unhappy; the month at the lovely countryside restores him somewhat. The music, by Blake, is lovely. When I feel down, I put this on the VCR. I am restored. Wish it could be released again, as I have a rather poor copy. But I love it just the same Firth is wonderful
7 out of 7 people found the following review useful: A lovely, complex film that keeps revealing itself, 12 August 2001 Author: amateurdj from San Francisco Bay Area
I adored the book by J. L. Carr, and was skeptical that Birkin's first person narrative could be conveyed on film. Firth brilliantly makes this internal landscape manifest, while the film provides a sumptuous external setting. All the lead cast strike an effective balance between intensity and restraint. Every time I view the movie, I see things that I hadn't noticed before.I wish I had seen "A Month in the Country" on the big screen when it was released. The laserdisc looks good, though I wonder what I'm missing. Even though the laserdisc soundtrack is monophonic, it was striking enough to make a friend jump when we were viewed it.
8 out of 9 people found the following review useful: It said more than it showed, 22 August 1999 Author: Sandy-93 from Clearlake, Calif
It is a movie like a good book, you want to cozy down with on a long winters night....it said more than it showed and it showed more than it said..the parting of Birkin and Moon mostly, Birkin, had me watching it several times,,what were the questions and the answers?...it reminded me of "Waiting for the Moon" with Linda Hunt...thanks
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