This is a rare movie.
There's no plot really. There are no explosions. No chases, that would make Dirty Harry's day. No death's that involved gore. No sex even mentioned, let alone witnessed. There's not even so much as a chaste kiss between the two main characters. Would you believe that two of the highlights was nothing more dramatic than poetry read by people who knew how to read it? Would you also believe that the plot revolved around the delight of a reader of English Literature, and the slow mutual regard that developed between reader and bookseller? Would you be as entranced as most of us who wrote reviews were as we listened to these two exchange the simple pleasure both enjoyed in the other? And yet it's a remarkable movie that many people rated as a ten, including me.
I thought it was a ten because everyone spoke like people.
The movie was not only about books, and literature and poetry. It was about how people helped each other through difficult times with little acts of kindness before the term was even thought of.
While the main point of the correspondence between these two concerned books, the humanity of one American (the character played by Anne Bancroft), and the proud dignity of one Englishman (Anthony Hopkins) was really a celebration of what is best in all of us. That is what made the movie so touching.
It is also what made it worth its ten.
There's no plot really. There are no explosions. No chases, that would make Dirty Harry's day. No death's that involved gore. No sex even mentioned, let alone witnessed. There's not even so much as a chaste kiss between the two main characters. Would you believe that two of the highlights was nothing more dramatic than poetry read by people who knew how to read it? Would you also believe that the plot revolved around the delight of a reader of English Literature, and the slow mutual regard that developed between reader and bookseller? Would you be as entranced as most of us who wrote reviews were as we listened to these two exchange the simple pleasure both enjoyed in the other? And yet it's a remarkable movie that many people rated as a ten, including me.
I thought it was a ten because everyone spoke like people.
The movie was not only about books, and literature and poetry. It was about how people helped each other through difficult times with little acts of kindness before the term was even thought of.
While the main point of the correspondence between these two concerned books, the humanity of one American (the character played by Anne Bancroft), and the proud dignity of one Englishman (Anthony Hopkins) was really a celebration of what is best in all of us. That is what made the movie so touching.
It is also what made it worth its ten.