For those who enjoy British comedies and period pieces, here's a little gem I found on a Border's bargain table. Watch the trailer: http://www.videodetective.com/titledetails.aspx?publishedid=79693
Here's a summary:
Stella Gibbons' popular novel was published in 1932, and it has been adapted twice for British television, first as a miniseries in 1971, then by director John Schlesinger in 1995. That version proved so popular that it was released to theaters in the U.S. The heroine of Gibbons' story, Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale), is an aspiring young writer with two needs: material for her first novel, and a cheap place to live and work. A wealthy friend (Joanna Lumley) encourages her to take advantage of her country cousins and impose upon them for lodgings. Flora finds Cold Comfort Farm to be a ramshackle affair populated by eccentrics including the imperious Ada Doom (Sheila Burrell), her daughter Judith (Eileen Atkins), Judith's rough but handsome son Seth (Rufus Sewell), and Amos (Ian McKellen), an amateur preacher whose sermonizing seems to release some kind of demons within him. Undaunted by this menagerie, Flora gets to work organizing the household, and she comes to realize that the material for her book is right in front of her. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
And what a menagerie! The quirky characters grow on you as Flora, wiser than her young years. takes command of their lives. The events may seem unbelievable but you really want these oddballs to succeed. Kate Beckinsale, who later looked smoldering in leather in the Underworld movies, is a delight as well as the other performers. Everyone seems rightfully cast here. I was fortunate to see Eileen Atkins on stage as a fine Rosalind in Shakespeare's As You Like It and Ian McKellen as Salieri in Amadeus, one of the great theatrical performance I've seen anywhere.
I had trouble listening to the dialogue & Bristish slang in the surround sound mode and switched over to 2-channel stereo which made it clearer. A good rent of a charming film.
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