Hated the character, loved the actress, that’s where I stand. Whichever it is confirms her as an actress whose name on a cast list makes any film a must for connoisseurs of great acting. Patricia Clarkson plays her with a sweet steeliness masking a suppressed frustration that may be sexual or political or both. She has money, patience and well-placed connections. Violet, with bigger fish to fry, sees Florence’s handsome old house as the ideal home for a cultural centre. Don’t assume that knowing this about her points to a creative cliché. Violet Gamart is married to a retired military man whom she dominates with a gentle insistence. But a small community can be home to a social climber with a private agenda, connections to help her fulfil it and a conviction that the community wants it. Surely that innocent decision should distress nobody. The story adapts a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald canvassing a choice selection of social issues provoked by the decision of Florence (Emily Mortimer), 16 years a widow, to buy an old (yet not too decrepit) house and live there using the ground floor as a bookshop. Emily Mortimer as Florence Green in “The Bookshop”.ĮVEN film reviewers are entitled to have favourites.Īnd for her gently powerful film about subtle conflict in a small English town in 1959, Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet has cast two of my favourite actors in pivotal roles.
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