Cold Comfort Farm

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book brought to life masterfully...
Review: Stella Gibbon's comic novel, Cold Comfort Farm, written in the 1930's, is brought to perfect fruition with this 1995 adaptation. It's the story of a young woman (Flora) who's parents die leaving her with only 100 pounds a year--not nearly enough to keep her living in the high-society style to which she's becomed accustomed. So she writes to her relatives and picks one to go live with--the Doom family of Cold Comfort Farm. Flora plans to tidy up their lives, and collect material for the book she plans to write when she's 53--after she's lived life.

Cold Comfort Farm is filled with a fabulous collection of characters who Flora systematically converts to a Higher Sensibility. The film is well acted, cinematically superior, and perfectly captures the spirit of the book--a wonderful read that I highly recommend as well!

I love this film, and have found it the perfect addition to my rainy day/sick bed viewing library. If you like british eccentrism, you'll love this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Quirky British humor, Emma meets hillbillies...
Review: I watched this movie on the recommendation of a couple of frequent movie viewers. This film was fun to watch on a rainy Sunday morning. It was not profound, and while most of the characters have a happy resolution of their problems, the film will not appeal to all. If you are a Jane Austen fan and love Emma in particular, the film will appeal to you for three reasons - firstly, the heroine Flora Poste slings off Jane Austen quotes and references (beginning with her intention to write her "Persuasion" when she is 53); secondly, because Flora acts much like Emma in trying to improve and manage the lives of others (without being blind to her own true love); and lastly, because the heroine Flora is played by Kate Beckinsale (who will go to to play Emma in the Andrew Davis/A&E version, called Emma 3). There are also a number of other stellar actors, most notably Sir Ian McKellen (playing a hell-raising preacher) and Eileen Atkins (playing his sad-sack cousin/wife).

I have not read the book nor seen the 1971 version, and therefore can judge the film only by its own merits. While the film left me with a smile on my face, it also left me a little puzzled. What was Judith Starkadder's real problem, why does she feel the family owes something to Robert Poste's child, and what did Aunt Ada Doom see in the woodshed?

A brief plot summary: London society girl Flora Poste discovers that she has only 100 pounds a year, which will not keep her in stockings. She decides to write to her many relatives to see if one of them will take her in (this is the 1930s, I believe). Flora decides to go to the most interesting set of relatives - the Starkadder cousins on Cold Comfort Farm. The family are portrayed as hillbillies in the worst sense, completely wedded to tradition, dirty and ignorant, unwilling to reform (such as using a dishmop instead of twigs). [Warning: this depiction of British farmers of the 1930s may be offensive to some].
Flora arrives at Cold Comfort Farm to discover that the farm and the family are apparently cursed. The family seems to feel that it owes something to her as Robert Poste's child (this is never explained in the film) but her cousins deeply resent her. The cousins are Amos and Judith Starkadder (cousins who married), their sons Reuben and Seth (the latter a lusty young man who loves the talkies), and several others. Gradually, Flora changes the way in which her Starkadder cousins live (by cleaning up the house, beginning with her bedroom curtains), persuades nearly each member of the family to make some critical changes, and also brings about three marriages in the future. All this, while also dangling along a London-based "embryo parson" with his own airplane and a locally-based "writer" who fancies himself in love with her.

Quick summary: The film was entertaining as long as it is not taken seriously. There was an element of snobbery in the relations between the city people and the country people that I did not quite like (even if it is true of this period and of today). The depiction of the gulf between the "county" families and the farmers is hinted at, but made light of. However, there is enough interest sustained in the movie, aided with strong acting from Kate Beckinsale (Flora Poste), Sir Ian McKellan (Amos Starkadder), Eileen Atkins (Judith Starkadder), and Rufus Sewell (Seth Starkadder) that carries the viewer along. Recommended for lovers of Jane Austen, or for lovers of eccentric British films. Some crudity but not as much as in WITHNAIL AND I or the BLACKADDER series.

Rating:
Summary: The woodshed is the happening place.. lol
Review: It has been years since I saw the movie.. I love it. It is that type of movie that you can watch over and over. It can pick you up when you are down. Oh, I can give a review of how the story is effective to that of the novelist style, but why should I? It has its storyline stereo-types, but it's something that we can relate to and identify with with those around us. It's wonderfully funny. The woodshed adds the special little craziness to a group of people who are very escentric but very loveable. Each character is protrayed to fill in the need for Flora in her quest to bring them into the current century. We never do learn what was in the woodshed, but one can get an idea. lol. And what did the family do that they felt they needed to atone to for Flora's father? Who knows, but it was nice of them. To sum this up, watching Cold Comfort Farm gives one a good feeling and can make one laugh him- or herself.

Rating:
Summary: "While I'm here, might I make a few changes?"
Review: Cold Comfort Farm is a jolly film that bounces along as merrily as its theme tune. It's a rollicking good comedy with a laugh-out-loud collection of Dickensian characters (the doom-stricken Starkadders, the rustic Adam Lambsbreath, and the upper crust Hawk-Monitors). Certainly the film is very over-the-top and silly, but it's light-hearted fun - a welcome alternative to the glut of psychological, heart-wrenching, blood-and-guts fare on the market.

The Starkadders live on the bleak acres of Cold Comfort Farm, where "the cows are barren and the sows are farren". Into this gloomy and eccentric setting comes young, 1930s-modern Flora Poste, who sets to winning the hearts and minds of Cold Comfort's inhabitants, and dragging the Starkadders into the twentieth century. Along the way she manages to rearrange and enliven her own life too.

Kate Beckinsale (prior to her arrival on the scene of big-budget American flicks) is a likeable and chirpy young lady with a talent for organisation. In the supporting roles, Joanna Lumley is delightfully sarcastic as Flora's incongruously named aunt, Mary Smiling, who has a rather unusual hobby. And Ian McKellen is a real scene-stealer as the fire-and-brimstone preacher of the Church of the Quivering Brethren.

The plot revolves around Great Aunt Ada Doom and the 'narsty' thing she saw in the woodshed nigh on 70 years ago. There is also the mysterious wrong perpetrated on Flora's father by the Starkadders sometime in the dim and misty past. So it is a tad frustrating that the audience is never let in on either of these secrets! But these are minor quibbles in what is otherwise an excellent comedic romp, with some interesting and atmospheric cinematography. A very good (and very British) laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, engaging, witty and absolutely brilliant!
Review: Any fan of Jane Austen's will appreciate this film's charm and sparkling wit. It is one of my favorite films ever! I saw this at an arthouse theater in Denver and everyone (including me) in the audience was roaring with laughter.

The story centers around the outspoken, feisty and newly-orphaned Flora Poste (aka Robert Poste's child), who moves from London to live with her rural, backwoods relatives in Cold Comfort Farm. Led by her mysterious great-aunt Ada Doom, her relatives prove to be absolutely eccentric and incredibly funny. Among her other quirky relatives are Amos Starkadder (Ian McKellen), his wife Judith (Eileen Atkins) and their children Seth (Ivan Kaye), Reuben (the hunky Rufus Sewell in one of his most memorable roles) and Elfine (Maria Miles). Then there is Flora's sophisticated London friend Mary Smiling (Joanna Lumley) who provides Flora with some much needed comfort, advice and fashionable magazines.

With a role that foreshadows her future role in Jane Austen's "Emma", Kate Beckinsale perfectly embodies a 1930s-like Emma Woodhouse role as she interferes in the lives of all of her relations and completely makes them all over. This doesn't bode well with her great-aunt Ada and cousin Judith, who abhor change of any sort.

It is a riotous film all the same and the brilliant performances from everyone involved make this DVD an absolute must have! If you enjoy British humor and satire, you'll love "Cold Comfort Farm!"

Rating:
Summary: Farm house with a view....
Review: Kate Beckensale might be best remembered for her role in PEARL HARBOR, but I first became aware of her in EMMA. I am very happy to see that CCF has finally been 'uncoupled' from the porm film one used to find for sale with it. I have been replacing my lazer disks one by one as films become available on DVD and had waited for a long while for this DVD.

The film is a gem. Joanna Lumley makes a rather brief appearance although she is pictured on the DVD cover. I suppose Universal Studios thought we Americans might recognize Lumley before Eileen Atkins, who also plays in this film although she was recently seen in COLD MOUNTAIN as the 'old goat woman' or Ian McKellen who played Gandalf in the Ring triogy, or Stephen Fry who played Jeeves in the JEEVES AND WOSTER series.

CCF is funny and sentimental in a British sort of manner. Who else but the British could envision the salvation of one of their own farm oafs as an offer from Hollywood to play in what undoubtedly will be romantic film productions. (Hey, we aren't all boobs who shoot from the lip!!). And, Joanna Lumley is superb as a slightly weird single girl who spends her down time fondling mannequins.

In spite of the tongue and cheek sexual innuendo, I think this film is suitable for family watching. The sly sexy humor is probably over the heads of most American kids. But what do I know, I don't watch American tv, I watch BBC America.

Rating:
Summary: An affectionate, funny film
Review: I saw this film soon after its 1995 release and thought it wonderful, all the more so because Kate Beckinsale's interpretation of Flora Poste reminded me very much of my oldest daughter. So I was pleased to see that it has finally come out on DVD; I bought a copy, watched it again, and still think it wonderful.

You should be warned that you may have a hard time understanding what some of the inhabitants of Cold Comfort Farm are saying. However, that's intentional and straight from the novel, where the accents and strange word usages often leave Flora puzzled. Here's an exchange (from the novel) that I believe is reproduced pretty much verbatim in the movie, when Reuben comes in after working out in the fields not long after Flora has started living at Cold Comfort Farm:

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...After another minute Reuben brought forth the following sentence:

'I ha' scranleted two hundred furrows come five o'clock down i' the bute.'

It was a difficult remark, Flora felt, to which to reply. Was it a complaint? If so, one might say, 'My dear, how too sickening for you!' But then, it might be a boast, in which case the correct reply would be, 'Attaboy!' or more simply, 'Come, that's capital.' Weakly she fell back on the comparativel safe remark:

'Did you?' in a bright interested voice.
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Speaking of which, the original novel (written in 1932 by Stella Gibbons) is just as wonderful, and the film is a remarkably faithful adaptation, if (understandably) a bit trimmed and modified. I read the book for the first time after watching the DVD release of the movie and was delighted to see that most of the dialog comes straight from the book, including my favorite line (the interchange between Neck, the movie producer, and Aunt Ada), if a bit punched up.

Finally, for the reviewers who are frustrated that we never find out what Ada saw in the woodshed, what wrongs were done to Robert Poste by Amos Starkadder, and what Flora Poste's rights were...well, the novel leaves us pretty much in the dark as well. In the book, Aunt Ada _does_ answer the second question for Flora--though we as readers don't get to hear the answer--and Ada is interrupted before she can answer Flora's intriguing follow up question, "And did the goat die?"

The movie and the book are both delightful; enjoy. ..bruce..

Rating:
Summary: A Completely Charming British Hoot!
Review: I'm all for the Brits and Cold Comfort Farm is hilarious!
It starts off with Flora Poste traveling to the raggedy farm of her distant relatives. When she gets to her destination she meets some strange people she wished she could forget. Similar to the film " Pollyanna " Flora breezes into people's lives, making them happier than they've ever been. Kate Beckensale is beautiful, charming and loveable in a film everyone will enjoy. This is a quirky little comedy of intelligence. The perfect film to accompany afternoon tea. A comedy must see!

Rating:
Summary: Nobody does eccentric like the Brits!
Review: The first time I watched Cold Comfort Farm, I thought it was OK, kind of like the reviewer who said "I guess this was meant to be funny". The characters Miss Flora Poste (aka Robert Poste's child) encounters at and around Cold Comfart Form(let's call it CCF) are flat out WEIRD. Being accustomed to period pieces like Merchant Ivory things, I missed much of the point. Now, I realized CCF should have been viewed with some of my P.G.Wodehouse-jaundiced(btw, Stephen Fry[Jeeves]is in this), "Merry Buds Of May"-loving eye. The whole cast is perfick! and Joanna Lumley(best known as Patsy in "Absolutely Fabulous!") seems to own the franchise for playing a semi-idle, terminally hip fashion slave. No matter if it's the 30's like CCF, or the 90's, Ms Lumley has it nailed. I had no idea who played Flora Poste, and was astonished to see it was Kate Beckinsale, who was dressed down for this role. I happened to be watching a bio of Sir Alec Guinness, and one of the interviewees was Eileen Atkins. I couldn't place her face, but suddenly I realized she was in CCF(as the terminally depressive Judith Starkadder). I clicked over to my movies listings, & was able to turn my Mother & sister on to CCF the next day. If you like British humour, check this out. If you've seen this & didn't care for it, do yourself a favor & give it another chance.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully British Comedy
Review: I love this movie and can see it over and over again. The humor is typically British and fantastically thought out. The locale is rich and the characters extremely well portrayed by their actors. The start is a bit slow, but builds. If you are a fan of old films and subtle satire, you'll love the last third of the film. This is one of my MUST-HAVES for my video library.