Praise is the only thing I can give this comedic gem of a film! Gibbon's characters come vividly to life in this perfect adaptation of her retro-Austin book. Kate Beckinsale give the best performance of her gifted career as "Robert Poste's Child",Flora who take up an invitation to Cold Comfort Farm with the motive of changing her extended family,the Starkadders, who reside there ("there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm"),and find out what the "great wrong" was that they had done her father,a wrong that they are most repentant of. By film's end she has accomplished one of these goals.
The cast is sheer perfection.Beckinsale is vivacious,perky,gutsy and completly charming,Sheila Burrell is a riot as family matriarch Ada Doom who keeps a tight leash on her family and hardly leaves her room since she "saw somthing nasty in the woodshed". Sir Ian McKellen is dynamic and utterly hysterical as Cousin Amo Starkadder who preaches fire and brimstone sermons warning all that in hell there is no butter to sooth the burns. Eileen Atkins as Amos wife,cousin Judith and Freddy Jones as their hired hand are also standouts,but with such a perfect cast there are no weak links,so take sit back and take a journey to the far regions of Sussex with Flora Poste and investigate the quirky Starkadder family, with secrets aplenty at Cold Comfort Farm..once there you will want to make many more visits
