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The Hotel New Hampshire [1984] [DVD]
 
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The Hotel New Hampshire [1984] [DVD]

DVD ~ Jodie Foster
2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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The Hotel New Hampshire [1984] [DVD]
71% buy the item featured on this page:
The Hotel New Hampshire [1984] [DVD] 2.0 out of 5 stars (1)
The Hotel New Hampshire [DVD] [1984]
13% buy
The Hotel New Hampshire [DVD] [1984] 4.2 out of 5 stars (4)
The Hotel New Hampshire (Black Swan)
12% buy
The Hotel New Hampshire (Black Swan) 4.1 out of 5 stars (16)
£6.99
Youngblood [DVD] [1986]
5% buy
Youngblood [DVD] [1986] 4.3 out of 5 stars (6)
£3.98
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Product details

  • Actors: Jodie Foster, Joely Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Seth Green, Beau Bridges
  • Directors: Tony Richardson
  • Format: PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: All Regions
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: Prism Leisure
  • DVD Release Date: 25 Sep 2006
  • Run Time: 109 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • ASIN: B000H5U788
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 18,734 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Synopsis
British director Tony Richardson takes on John Irving's picaresque black comedy about an eccentric and unusually peripatetic family in a film starring Rob Lowe as John Berry, the family's oldest son. John's father, Win (Beau Bridges), is obsessed with hotels, so he buys a run-down seminary in New England, transforming it into the Hotel New Hampshire. The extended family includes the profanity-spouting Franny (Jodie Foster); Lily (Jennifer Dundas); a dwarf, Frank (Paul McCrane), who is gay; John, who is strongly attracted to his sister; Egg (Seth Green), the youngest boy; and Iowa Bob (Wilford Brimley), Win's father. After a number of tragic incidents, including the gang rape of Franny, are seen through the special lenses of black comedy, the family is invited to take over another hotel in Vienna, courtesy of their friend Freud (Wallace Shawn). On arrival, they find that the upper floors of the hotel are dedicated to prostitution and the bottom floors are occupied by terrorists. They also meet Freud's companion, Susie the Bear (Nastassia Kinski), a woman so obsessed with her unattractiveness that she spends all her time in a bear suit. Richardson elicits fine performances from his talented cast in this wild ride through the mind of John Irving.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Skimming the waves, 28 Feb 2007
If you have not read the book, then this movie may intrigue you. It is quirky and interesting to say the least. As a storyline it does not lack imagination. From Maine to Vienna to NYC and back to Maine, from the Jew-hating German tourists to the radicals and the whores, from one Hotel New Hampshire to another, the dreams of a father and his colourful family unfold in a series of bizarre and at times disturbing events. And life appears to be a fairy tale that we live as we chase our dreams.

Now, in relation to the actual book, this movie can be described with just one word: RUSHED. The adaptation is so faithful that it tries to cover almost everything, all characters and all events, thereby failing miserably to project the sentiment behind the eccentric story of this highly unusual family. I could go on and on about how the accurate quotes from the original text fall flat on a screenplay that comes across truncated and patched together clumsily, how the scenes lack emotional depth, how the characters are not given enough time to be adequately developed... but I will instead characterise the whole attempt as noble but short. If the book was a long wave-like function, with a rise to a crest, then a drop followed by a building surge and another rise to another crest, over and over and over again, then the movie was just a cross-section of the top parts of this rollercoaster of a wave-like function, shaving off all the crests and placing them in a two hour blender, where they were shaken and served to please God knows what. Surely not the potential of this fascinatingly bizarre book, nor its undercurrent and extremely subtle magical tone. And it was not for lack of effort. It was for lack of realism on how to put on screen a highly bizzare story in a way that flows smoothly rather than jump spastically between scenes. A mini series would have worked much better for such a faithful adaptation. Either that or a more free-flowing interpretation that could possibly make sense within the 120 minutes that are usually allocated to a motion picture.

Thank God for Jodie Foster's and Beau Bridges's performances, who bring Fanny and Win Berry to life. Keep passing the open windows and read the book for a much richer and meaningful experience. As far as this movie is concerned, just toss it out as far as you can. And if you are to keep it, then do so to remind yourselves of how to NOT adapt a great book onto the screen. This is the only reason why I keep mine.
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