Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honorary Auvergnat, 6 Oct 2008
I enjoyed this DVD of Mary Wesley's Camomile Lawn very much more than the book, presumably greatly to the credit of its Director Peter Hall but also to the strong cast. All are good but of particular note are Felicity Kendall who gives a tremendous performance, the eye-pleasing Jennifer Ehle whether clothed or not, her sensible counterpart Tara Fitzgerald, similarly eye-pleasing but in a quieter way, and Rebecca Hall as the juvenile star. And of course there is the coast of Cornwall - contrasting with scenes of London in the blitz with a memorable scene of Tara and Rebecca on the phone to Cornwall from under a table while near-hit bombs (and the ceiling) were falling. Its the sort of film that lives with you for days after the viewing and which you want to go back to and relish.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Camomile Lawn, 9 Feb 2009
A great and absorbing TV series well worth watching.
It is base on a families life through the second world war and how it affects them,flpping to present day and back to the war at home in the UK.
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3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Posh tosh - I must be missing something., 22 Feb 2009
The Camomile Lawn has to be one of the worst DVDs I've ever watched. And I was really surprised and disappointed that this was the case. I'd read the hype, and the casting was impressive - Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington, Claire Bloom, Virginia McKenna, Tara Fitzgerald and Jennifer Ehle. And all under the direction of Peter Hall. Sounded like it couldn't fail.
But no. The acting was as wooden as Uncle Richard's leg. But then how can you expect the cast to act when the storyline is so bereft of, well, story.
No, that's a slight exaggeration. There is a story of sorts. A family of very rich upper-middle class people has homes in London and Cornwall. These rich people like to have affairs - lots of them - and, in some cases, their husband or wives are aware of this and endorse them. But nothing really happens - despite it being set against the backdrop of the Second World War , and the script is totally unconvincing. The annoying thing is that there are actually several subplots with real potential. One concerns Sophie, a ten-year-old, who is flashed at by a coastguard on a lonely stretch of cliff. The coastguard was drunk and falls off the cliff (or was he pushed?) but Sophie (played by Peter Hall's daughter Rebecca - who out-acts the rest of the of the cast put together) doesn't appear to be bothered about the incident and this element of the story is almost ignored. Another subplot concerns two Austrian Jews, Max & Monika Erstweiler, refugees from the Nazis, and their son Pauli, whom they had to leave behind when they escaped, and whom they believe died in a concentration camp. Well he didn't, we discover very near the end, and thirty years later. But there's no explanation as to how he eluded death. It is also alleged that he's an unpleasant person, but there's no reason given for this assertion.
What this drama does have is a fair amount of nudity, particularly on the part of Jenifer Ehle (after previously seeing her in Pride & Prejudice where she was tremendous but extremely chaste, it was quite a culture shock, and one from which I may never recover). I'm no prude and have no objection to hanky-panky (or rumpy-pumpy, or any other rhyming euphemism for fornication you care to use) but this was at the expense of the story rather than enhancing it. As to the merits of Ms Ehle with her kit off, well I thought that Tara Fitzgerald was far sexier and more attractive.
Now I said earlier that the Jewish refugees were a subplot, but the story ends with Max's funeral. Max is a gifted and much loved violinist (he's also much-loving and has affairs with just about all the females in the cast). However, Max's importance was not at all apparent for 95% of the drama - the most "important" being Calypso (Jenifer Ehle). I cannot understand at all the popularity of this film. I must be missing something.
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