La granja de Sachem

My comments are for the people who will rent this movie and be tempted to turn it off after the first 30 minutes. For me, this movie had a slow start, and frankly I was scratching my head a bit wondering where this movie was going and whether I had rented a dud. My husband, son, and I persevered and loved watching this movie unfold into a delightful story about family and the accompanying quirks, highs and lows, and often misunderstandings that occur between relatives. When the movie concluded, we looked at each other and said, "Now that was a good movie!"

I saw this film at a film festival and I would have to say it gives the best performance by Rufus & Minnie. Excellent visuals for a basic/simple story. Very well directed. Must see.

First of all I must admit that I am a great admirer of Rufus Sewell. That was the main reason I couldn't hardly contain myself when this was finally released in the U.S. as Uncorked. I would not however, be so biased as not to include Nigel Hawthorne in this comment.

The story was cute, I must say a little girlie, but definitely not like every other movie. Nigel Hawthorne as Uncle Cullen was probably my favorite part of the movie. His ability to be completely impossible to all the other characters, with out making him any less likable was amazing. Of course all the performances were great, his just really stood out.

My favorite part of the entire movie though, was within the first five minutes. It was an exchange between the characters Mr. Tan and Ross regarding a straw. It sounds a little strange, but that just cracked me the heck up.

Overall I would just like to say that the wait for it to come to the U.S. was totally worth it, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Production quality has a made-for-TV feel but it doesn't matter much. Nothing is outright bad or distracting; in fact, the lighting is quite beautiful in many scenes. The story itself isn't very plausible, but leaves enough unsaid that you can imagine it possible that such eccentric characters exists in some corner of rural California.

It's the characters who make the film. Nigel Hawthorne's Uncle Cullen is the odd ascetic who sits on a pillar but manages to repair the soul of Ross (Rufus Sewell) who is chasing after the wind with his "business" ventures, and the love life of Kendal (Minnie Driver) who longs to be with her first love, but won't admit it to herself. The movie touches on spiritual matters as the characters come to understand who they really are and what they really want out of life.

The humor is sprinkled throughout, expertly placed just when the story needs an emotional pick-me-up. Mr. Tang playing the guitar is one of the funniest scenes I've seen, one that I laugh at still, after having seen it a dozen times.

High art it's not, but well made, touching and entertaining, even if the producer/director (John Huddles) is a relative unknown.

I just saw this movie which just came out on video here in the states and found it to be the best use of Rufus Sewell's talents as an actor. He gets to be brooding, sexy, sweet, baffled, everything that I have seen him be in little bits and pieces in other movies, but never all together in one place. This movie gave him the chance to really show us that he can be a leading man in a movie and do it very well. I hope to see more of this kind of work from him in the future. Also, the whole theme of the movie was just right, I enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters involved in the movie and the excellent music used throughout. I found the movie to be very romantic and sensual in a different way than a period piece movie. I highly recommend this movie to anyone looking for a good British comedy/drama. I found it to be very enlightening--the character that Nigel Hawthorne plays is much smarter than Rufus' character gives him credit for and that is the real key. Enjoy it!