Masterpiece Theatre: My Family and Other Animals
by Sheree Folkson
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Actor: Eugene Simon; Imelda Staunton; Tamzin Merchant; Russell Tovey; Matthew Goode; Kostas Tziotakis; Michael Yannatos; Omid Djalili; Olga Tournaki; Dimitris Kaberidis; David Armand; Antonis Antoniou; Chris Langham; George Couyas; Efi Papatheodorou; Yorgos Kotanidis; Jason Watkins; Mark Caven; Miranda Hart; Meredith MacNeillDirector: Sheree Folkson
Brand: WGBH BOSTON VIDEO
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: WGBH BOSTON
DVD Reviews of Masterpiece Theatre: My Family and Other Animals
DVD Review: Fun With Animals
Summary: 5 Stars
What a romp. For apperantly no sane reason a British Family moves to Geece just before World War II. The rather isolated and run down home they move into is obviously an invitation to disaster. While the Older sister is bringing home strange boy friends and an older brother is going crazy with guns the young boy in the family starts collecting live animals which drive everybody to distraction. He loves the animals more I think than his sister loves her gentleman friends. Then suddenly the War breaks out and Greece is no longer safe. They have to go back to England where the boy grows up to be a World famouse Animal scientist.DVD Review: serendipity
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this delightful cinematic gem while searching for movies starring Matthew Goode, one of the best young English actors today. He is perfect here as the oldest son in this singular family: handsome, droll, hedonistic, supercilious, fully flexing his considerable comedic muscles.
This is a group of superb actors playing off each other, generous to a fault, and having a ball. The fun they have is sublimely infectious.
The movie is a vibrant and winning portrayal of Gerald Durrell's memoir of his family, just prior to WWII, living on Corfu. Durrell, who became a leading zoologist and wrote 37 books, cut his chops on Corfu, scoping out scorpions and other forms of wildlife dangerous and benign. He was about thirteen, with an older sister and two older brothers, equally quirky, individual, and funny.
His sister discovers boys - and men - wreaking much havoc on the island. His older brother, played perfectly by adorable Russell Tovey (History Boys), has a mania for hunting and shooting. And Larry (author Lawrence Durrell), played by Goode, is an obsessed writer who smokes, lounges about, and poses. He invites an amusing group of eccentric friends, including author Henry Miller, who writes in the nude and considers clothing the last refuge of the bourgeoisie. His family find them somewhat less entertaining.
Their summer is also populated by other characters with whom they interact: two British tutors, a Turkish boyfriend, the family's Greek mentor, housemaid, and a customs agent who confiscates lingerie and linen.
Imelda Staunton, as the mother of this brood, holds the whole mess together and has never been more enjoyable.
Great episodic story, beautiful photography, clever editing, highly imaginative music, smart script, delightful acting. The 85 minutes fly by and leave us wanting much more of this endearing family.
PBS, always at the cutting edge of timidity, has seen fit to cut out about two minutes of the already very short film. Apparently, the sight of turtles on top of each other is too much for their sensibilities, or ours. And I find it annoying to pay for a DVD and still sit thru not only their annoying Masterpiece Theater intro but, worse, their tireless spiel asking for money. I suggest buying the BBC Region 2 version of this delightful concoction if you can play it.
DVD Review: St. Spiridion!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a gem of a film that perfectly captures the spirit of the book: wonderfully acted and beautifully filmed. The music is also a delight. Buy it and enjoy.DVD Review: Pretty, and
Summary: 3 Stars
...the characters look like I had pictured them in my mind, BUT, this movie sure does not do justice to the book!
Please, if you haven't already done so, go out and read it for yourself. This movie is a poor, weak copy of an absolutely smashingly wonderful hilarious book!
DVD Review: Delightful Eccentricities
Summary: 5 Stars
In the late 1930s life for the Durrell family in England has just about become unbearable. At the behest of the oldest son Lawrence, a budding novelist whose writing ability is only exceeded by his arrogance and his charm, the family moves to the island of Corfu. There Lawrence gets down to writing, while younger brother Leslie fires off guns at odd moments, sister Margo attracts numerous male admirers, and Mrs. Durrell vaguely and haphazardly tries to maintain some sense of law and order. The youngest brother, Gerald, is the star of the show. He is fascinated by animals, birds, and insects, and fills the Durrell home up with pets and carcasses in various states of decomposition and disrepair while he learns to be a writer himself. Along the way the Durrells meet numerous Greeks and Turks and have various odd guests, chiefly imported by Lawrence. The whole film is one escapade and bizarre moment after another right down to the very end, helped along by a magnificent cast led by Imelda Staunton and Matthew Goode and by the beautiful island of Corfu itself. A great way to spend 90 minutes.
Description of Masterpiece Theatre: My Family and Other Animals
When the dreary English weather of 1935 gets to be too much for the eccentric Durrell family, they set off for the rustic, sun-drenched Greek island of Corfu, and the unknown. The lively clan is headed by Mrs. Durrell, a middle-aged widow who gives in to the whims of her children and who patiently tolerates their adventures. Her eldest son Larry, a budding avant-garde writer with wild friends, has no regard for his mother, while her second son, Leslie, is a gun-obsessed sportsman who shoots at everything in sight. Her only daughter, Margot, is a teen beauty who changes boyfriends as quickly as she does bathing suits. But her youngest son, 12-year-old Gerald, is the heart and soul of this lively saga. Filling his family??s villa with an impressive menagerie of animals and insects, Gerald discovers his life??s vocation in nature and animals, as well as his own voice as an author. Based on Gerald Durrell??s childhood memoir, Academy Award-nominee Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Matthew Goode (Match Point), and Eugene Simon (Casanova) bring My Family and Other Animals humorously to life."Why do we put up with this bloody climate?" moans Larry Durrell during the rainy prelude to this Masterpiece Theater presentation. It's 1935 and 12-year-old Gerald (Eugene Simon, Casanova) is living with his family in Bournemouth. His father passed away years ago. Much like Judi Dench in Mrs. Henderson Presents, his mother (Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake) sees widowhood as a chance to make a fresh start. On Larry's advice, she decides to relocate the brood to sunny Corfu (now Kerkira), so off to Greece they go: Mother, nature-obsessed Gerry, boy-crazy Margot (Tamzin Merchant), gun-happy Leslie (Russell Tovey), and literature-loving Larry (Matthew Goode, Match Point). Minutes after their arrival, a burly fellow named Spiro (Iranian comedian Omid Djalili, Gladiator) takes the quintet under his wing and finds them a roomy villa. Soon Gerald is collecting every manner of animal: turtles, rose beetles, rabbits. The other Durrells embark on adventures of their own, brassy jazz-pop punctuating their every move. Previously produced as a 1987 miniseries by the BBC, this fanciful film boils Durrell's enduring memoir down to a brisk 90 minutes. The structure may be episodic, but the attention to detail--the exotic fauna, the evocative costumes--is praiseworthy. As Gerry notes about his creatures, "They're just like us, aren't they--families. I want to know how they all work. Imagine if they weren't there?" While Gerald would go on to become a naturalist, brother Lawrence would find also fame with The Alexandria Quartet. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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