The Bookshop

A film for people who are not in a hurry. Great story. Tender performances (Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy are wonderful). A story of stubborn determination, small village power plays and unexpected allies. Great supporting cast (Young Honor Kneafsey is a stand out). Definitely a movie for book lovers. I give this film an 8 (great) out of 10. {Drama}

The three main stars put in stellar performances, Emily Mortimer in particular shows her true acting colours in this aged tale about class and corruption. I love the story, the direction, the acting, and the way it shows at the end that despite all the corruption and badness in humans, one can touch another one in their life for a short period of time, and have a lasting positive impact on them for the rest of their lives. Beautifully done and my only regret is that I can't see it again for the first time.

Once again, I see criticism of a film because it moves to slowly. It a modern curse. I looked one day and found that 25 percent of the films available were based on comic book characters. Most of them involve the same tired martial arts, with overdressed villains who are going to destroy the world. I like escape and enjoy good adventure too, but this is what mainstream cinema seems to have become, so when something introspective comes along it is seen as boring. We've given up the effort to look into the souls of people. Here is the story of a good woman who becomes victimized by a cruel town led by a rich, narcissistic human being. It is slow moving but the message is really striking. Emily Mortimer has so much emotion in her face and manner. For those of you that gave this a single point, perhaps she should have used a round kick and snapped off the old lady's head.

Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) is a widow who dreams of opening a modest bookshop in a tiny Sussex seaside town, which by 1959 is virtually cut off from the outside English literature world. Florence is kindhearted to a fault, and because she lacks that needed killer business savvy, and instead possesses great naivety by first hiring a ten (10) year old girl named Christine (Honor Kneafsey) who is physically removed from her school classroom for being under aged and gainfully employed. Florence next hires a smarmy unemployed Milo North (James Lance) who has a hidden agenda for his willingness to take the job at the pay grade that his ten year old predecessor was making, which should have set off warning bells for the naive yet generous bookshop owner Florence.

This is the story between pure goodness (Emily Mortimer) and her dream of opening a bookshop for the townspeople more than for herself and lack of want for a successful business, and the sheer vindictiveness when a rich woman Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson) wants to remove the recently opened bookshop and replace it with a ridiculous arts center.

Florence does have a small cloister of bookshop supporters, none greater than a recluse widower named Edmund Brundish (Bill Nighy) but Florence is out matched by the social status and wealth of the vindictive Violet Gamart who takes any and all means of usurping both old and newly creative bylaws to oust Florence and her bookshop for her own vanity project, the arts center.

Mrs. Shullivan and I were both brokenhearted and ecstatic with how the film ends, so no spoilers will be forthcoming. See the bookshop for yourself and you become the critic. As for myself, I give the bookshop a 7 out of 10 rating for its warmth of story line and worthy ending for a good versus evil film.

Lovely film for me. slow paced but full of meaning and reflecting society's power when it wants to reject something new and not in the order of usual expectations. It may stirs your emotions and make you wonder why some people can be so stoic but can keep their own emotion into a very reasonable check. Although you may witness some outburst but you will not see an easy surrender or long winded retaliation. I wish those who are so critical of such work make it as a personal observation instead of making themselves authority in this art. We don't all have the same taste, upbringing and education so we don't share the same appreciation.