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Coming Home by Giles Foster
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DVD detailsActor: Anneliese Uhlig, David McCallum, Joanna Lumley, Penelope Keith, Peter O'Toole Director: Giles Foster Brand: Acorn Producer: David Cunliffe Producer: Rikolt von Gagern Producer: Thomas Mattinson Producer: Tim Buxton Producer: Victor Glynn Writer: John Goldsmith Writer: Rosamunde Pilcher DVD: Region Code 0 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 199 minutes DVD Release Date: 2000-03-28 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Acorn Media
DVD Reviews of Coming HomeDVD Review: Excellent production of a good story Summary: 4 Stars
I haven't read the novel, Coming Home, nor any of Pilcher's work, so I can't compare the film to the book. Having read the other viewers' reviews, I gather that true Pilcher novel fans might be disappointed in the film. For others, who just want an entertaining few hours, this might do well. I picked it up because Peter O'Toole's face was on the cover and I figured he wouldn't be a part of anything that was too bad.
The story covers a period in the life of a young girl, Judith Dunbar, as she enters boarding school in England when her mother and sister go to Singapore to join her father. It is in the years leading up to WWII. (In the early scenes she is played by the radiantly gorgeous young Keira Knightly.) At school she becomes best friends with Loveday Carey-Lewis, a spirited girl from a fabulously wealthy family in Cornwall. She spends most of her holidays with this family and they take her in as one of their own. We are treated to magnificent views of the area and the pleasures of the lifestyle of the privileged. Peter O'Toole plays a small role as the father of Loveday but he steals every scene he appears in. It's almost worth sitting through the very long video to see him.
Joanna Lumley is almost his equal as his glamourous, amazing wife.
The story progresses as Judith matures, and faces the problems that beset a young woman. (The transition from Keira Knightly to the much less beautiful Emily Mortimer is a shock, but we soon grow used to her and come to admire her excellent moral qualities, which sort of make up for the lack of luster.) When the war breaks out life changes for everyone and the difficulties become enormous. At one point I wondered how poor Judith could take one more blow, but she shows, as they all do, the amazing quality of staunch fortitude for which the British have become famous. One of the main things I took away from the video was the experience of everyday people during that war. As an American who has not had any first hand experience with war, I am truly humbled to think of what others have endured.
There are some moments which, for me, were overly melodramatic, most notably the suicide. And it seemed that Judith's choice of eventual mate was telegraphed early on in the film so there was no surprise there. (I understand that it was different in the book.)
This is not Shakespeare and if you don't expect King Lear you might be pleasantly surprised by an earnest presentation of a story that contains some interesting characterizations of what could have been real people in an era not that far removed from our time. I enjoyed it.
More Coming Home reviews: 1 2 3 4
Description of Coming HomeCOMING HOME - DVD Movie "I've only been to Nancherrow once. I thought it was very beautiful, but somehow not part of the real world," says the headmistress of St. Ursula's to young Judith. Judith Dunbar, the heroine of Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home, starts her journey at this boarding school when her mother and sister leave to join her father in Singapore. It is here that she first gets to know her soon-to-be lifelong friend, Loveday Carey-Lewis. Through Loveday, Judith is welcomed into the Carey-Lewis family and invited to the majestic estate of Nancherrow. Coming Home truly shows a fairy-tale England. The beautiful coastal scenery and the flawless posh accents of all the characters make this almost unbelievable. Everyone is so kind, so repentant at the first hint of any mistake, and so happy--even the tragedies have their silver lining. Joanna Lumley and Peter O'Toole's roles as the happy Carey-Lewises hardly tax their acting ability, although they portray this frightfully British upper-class couple exactingly. As the story progresses through World War II, the saga of Judith Dunbar twists and turns. Not without its tragedy, her life is still enchanted by Nancherrow and its charmed residents, as familiar to her as her own family. Coming Home is not part of the real world, but rather an escape that somehow becomes the one place that feels like home. --Amanda Powter
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