The Canterville Ghost

What cuteness, great adaptation, half youthful, half romantic, a little dramatic and almost nothing frightening, anyway, delicious ... Gracinha da Família, a simple and captivating film...

Oscar Wilde's short story is here updated and given a glossy makeover in this American TV movie co-produced by lead actor Patrick Stewart. Wilde's tale is tweaked somewhat, no doubt for modern consumption, but the story of the lamenting ghost, behind whose bluster lies a desire for redemption and eternal rest still comes through in what was a pleasant and watchable piece of family entertainment.

Making good use of its Knebworth House location and employing the services of veteran English supporting actors Joan Sims and Donald Sinden as housekeeper Mrs Umney and her husband, these fustian, traditional components, along with the stentorian, Shakespeare-quoting Stewart as the ghost himself, contrast nicely with the brash youth of Mr & Mrs Otis and their young children. I might have wished for a scarier ghost and better special effects but I guess a TV movie budget is somewhat less than for a full cinematic release.

As is usual in tales of this type, there's always one disbelieving sceptic, in this case the father, Mr Otis, who for good measure appears to have seen his relationship with oldest daughter Virginia become strained as she gets older, the situation for the latter exacerbated by the family's move to England from America.

After initially encountering Stewart's ghost with to be fair, not much fear and trepidation, the children man (and woman) up enough for Virginia to bond with it and by the end lead it to peace and the expected happy ending. The device of trying to convince the father of the ghost's existence by means of the daughter and Stewart recreating Hamlet's father's ghost scene seems a bit far-fetched for modern audiences, even whilst I appreciate it is in the book. Neve Campbell does well in her scenes with Stewart depicting a young teenage girl's blossoming into womanhood, aided conveniently by the appearance of a neighbouring handsome young lord.

Purists may criticise some of the liberties taken with Wilde's original story, but sufficient respect I believe is paid in what was for me a sprightly and warming retelling of a nice old tale.

While there are still many variances from the original story, this version hewed much more closely to it than the 1944 film, which bore little more resemblance to the original than the name. I think this one was well served by the greater similarity.

I thought all the actors did a great job, though I was a bit put off by the peevishness of the father character during most of the movie. In the original story he was also a non-believer, but with much more good humor and sympathy.

I don't know if anyone has ever tried enacting the story as written but I'd be interested in seeing it if they did.

I liked this version okay, but my favorite "Canterville Ghost" is the one 10 years before this one-- the 1986 version with Alyssa Milano and Sir John Gielgud. The 1986 movie was much better and more exciting than this one... More scary and funny things happened in it. I also thought they bothered to do better "ghostly" special effects. But the 1996 one is definitely worth seeing, none the less... It's a nice story and I thought that Patrick Stewart and Neve Campbell did a good job. The little brothers were annoying though in this one, and completely un-necessary to the movie. But the castles and the english scenery are so pretty in both. The music was much better in the 1986 version though.. even the opening scene was nicer of them going up to the castle in the horse drawn carriage, rather than in a car. So it's those little details that make the one a decade earlier a lot better than this one.

This movie was quite enjoyable. Patrick Stewart is great in everything and this was no exception, he transformed his ghost character to be engaging and sympathetic. Neve brought charm and warmth. The rest of the cast were pretty good, some better than others. I didn't give it a full 10 stars because certain scenes were a bit too hokey, eg. the portrait scene with Sir Canterville and Neve (anyone who saw it will know what I mean - harks back to hammy 80s photos) and the father character was a little too smarmy and annoying. There will be no plot surprises but all up it was an interesting and entertaining 1.5 hour movie.