★½☆☆☆
22 June 2018
A movie review of THE BOOKSHOP. |
“She’s a very powerful women. Does that not concern you?” Edmund Brundish (Bill Nighy)
When the opening voice over tells the audience that the lead character has a good heart that should cause discerning viewers to sink into the seat. It bodes badly for the experience ahead. Lazily being told the protagonist is “good” is weak characterisation. For a start, we should be shown not told. Writing, acting and directing combine to elicit personality. Secondly, “good” is such a bland word, and epitomises THE BOOKSHOP. It has the quality of a made-for-television mid-week schedule-filler. Narration rarely enhances a film, and is often a signal that the creative team cannot convey the story without such a crutch; even when here the vocals belong to an acting legend, Julie Christie.
When the opening voice over tells the audience that the lead character has a good heart that should cause discerning viewers to sink into the seat. It bodes badly for the experience ahead. Lazily being told the protagonist is “good” is weak characterisation. For a start, we should be shown not told. Writing, acting and directing combine to elicit personality. Secondly, “good” is such a bland word, and epitomises THE BOOKSHOP. It has the quality of a made-for-television mid-week schedule-filler. Narration rarely enhances a film, and is often a signal that the creative team cannot convey the story without such a crutch; even when here the vocals belong to an acting legend, Julie Christie.
What was writer-director Isabel Coixet thinking? Her career is so uneven. It has come to feel like a lottery whether a project will satisfy (e.g. MY LIFE WITHOUT ME, LEARNING TO DRIVE) or be a dire waste of time (e.g. ENDLESS NIGHT). THE BOOKSHOP falls into the latter camp.
Utterly turgid, one wonders what drew the cast. The dialogue is so forced and artificial. And not in a fascinatingly stylised way. And not in a gripping entry into a culture not normally filmed way (compare and contrast TRESPASS AGAINST US). Why did the Brit leads take part? One is particularly looking at Bill Nighy.
Just because the narrative is set in 1959, does not mean the themes have to seem outdated. Adroit period flicks draw parallels to present day travails. There is little allegory to mine here. Commentary on myopia, moral cowardice, and the strong oppressing the weak, is too slight.
Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) is a widow who dreams of opening a bookstore. She chooses a sleepy town, and immediately rubs up against the wealthiest denizen, Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), the villain of the piece. But like all the movie’s populace, she is a two-dimensional caricature.
Stilted and jarring, the conversations and performances are as if from a radio play. THE BOOKSHOP is sub-CHOCOLAT small-town small-mindedness.