Clothes in the Wardrobe (1993) (TV)

Regisseur:

Waris Hussein

Drehbuchautoren:

Alice Thomas Ellis (novel)
Martin Sherman (writer)

Premierendatum:

20. Dezember 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Komödie | Romanze

Plot:

Boy meets Girl in Egypt. Girl is profoundly affected and returns to England where she apathetically becomes engaged to the 'boy' next door...

Plot Keywords:

England | Egypt | Based On Novel

Filmpreise:

1 nomination

Nutzerkommentare:

Marvelous veteran acting barely succeeds in overcoming annoyingly slow pacing and hard-to-follow segues

Besetzung

Jeanne Moreau	...	Lili
Joan Plowright	...	Mrs. Monro
Julie Walters	...	Monica
David Threlfall	...	Syl
Maggie Steed	...	Mrs. Raffald
John Wood	...	Robert
Gwyneth Strong	...	Cynthia
Roger Lloyd-Pack	...	Derek
Catherine Schell	...	Marie-Claire
Lena Headey	...	Margaret
Padraig Casey	...	Nour
Britta Smith	...	Mother Joseph
Pierre Sioufi	...	Ahmed
Sherine El Ansari	...	Gypsy Girl
Annabel Burton	...	Margaret as a Child

Alternativ:

The Summer House (Australia) (USA)
Blühendes Leben, Ein (Deutschland) [de]

Länge:

79 Min

Produktionsland:

UK

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Tonverfahren:

Stereo

Altersfreigabe:

USA:PG | Argentina:Atp

Firma:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Dialogzitate:

LILI: Your dog is making love to my foot.

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in Hype! (1996)

Marvelous veteran acting barely succeeds in overcoming annoyingly slow pacing and hard-to-follow segues

I rented this movie because of the promise of Julie Walters, Joan Plowright, and Jeanne Moreau co-starring in a comedy. And indeed, Moreau and Plowright are absolutely marvelous. Walters does better than the script deserved with the thankless role of the bride's cheerful-but-none-too-bright mother. The plot moves at a snail's pace, and Moreau telegraphs her role in the movie's delicious conclusion in the film's first 30 minutes. If this sign of things to come was to prevent us from turning off the movie in utter boredom during its first half it succeeded. When the always magnificent John Wood comes in as Moreau's ex-husband things pick up a bit.

But, Anna Headey as the bride is way too winsome and enigmatic and distant. The result is that we are annoyed by her total lack of backbone and will in handling the fact that she is engaged to a man she doesn't love, and does not wish to marry. There is more to this than meets the eye, but Ms. Headey fails to even give us a glimpse of any depth at all. She remains fatalistic and a resigned victim even though none of her relatives are pressuring her to marry. The actor (Helgast?) playing her fiance, Syl, is brilliantly feckless and cloying. But, Headey gives both him and Waters precious little to play off in their scenes together.

Overall, i give this 6 out of 10, certainly worth sticking with once you've started since the second half is much better than the first. Also, in fairness, it probably seemed even more remote to me, as a Yank, because of many cultural references with which I was unfamiliar. I would imagine that people from Croydon would find much more to revel in than I did, particularly if they ever lived, or had any relatives who ever lived, in Egypt.