The Bookshop

The Bookshop 2017

• Director: Isabel Coixet
• Other films seen by this director: Paris je t’aime, My Life without Me
• Based on the book by Penelope Fitzgerald
• Cast: Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, Honor Kneafsey, Frances Barber, James Lance
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Emily Mortimer – Hugo, Shutter Island, Lars and the Real Girl, Paris je t’aime, Dear Frankie, Bright Young Things, Young Adam, The Kid, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Notting Hill, Elizabeth
• Bill Nighy – Their Finest, Hotel Marigold 1&2, Pride, About Time, Jack the Giant Slayer, Total Recall, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, Doctor Who, Glorious 39, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, Gideon’s Daughter, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Love Actually, Kiss Me Kate, Black Books, Longitude, Still Crazy
• Patricia Clarkson – Maze Runner 1-3, Shutter Island, Elegy, Lars and the Real Girl, Good Night and Good Luck, Six Feet Under, Dogville, The Station Agent, Far from Heaven, The Pledge, The Green Mile, The Old Man and the Sea
• Honor Kneafsey – Sherlock, Friday Night Dinner
• Frances Barber – Vicious, Doctor Who, Friday Night Dinner, King Lear, Hustle, Still Crazy, Twelfth Night, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
• James Lance – Late Night Shopping, Absolutely Fabulous
• Why? Bill Nighy
• Seen: 13 June 2020      

       Florence Green (Mortimer), who has been a war widow for sixteen years, decides to banish her grief by opening a bookshop in a small English village in which nobody reads books except Mr Brundish (Nighy), a reclusive, misanthropic book lover. She’s met with all kinds of intrigue and connivances to prevent her from opening the shop. But open it she does and it thrives.

       Which angers her main opponent, the richest and most powerful woman in the village, Mrs Gamart (Clarkson), who will stop at nothing to close her down.

       It’s not the feel-good film I had expected, quite the opposite. As always, Bill Nighy is perfect for his role.

3½ * of 5