The Vacillations of Poppy Carew

Unpretentious, mostly light-hearted romantic comedy. Except for a couple of odd breaks in tone there aren't many surprises, but it's good entertainment, and the featured actors are all charming and attractive.

This film is really nothing special. I watched it because it came free with the Daily Mail and stars Tara Fitzgerald in the title role. Poppy Carew is a lively woman who, no sooner than having pushed her cheating boyfriend into a canal for cheating, sees her loving father die in front of her after a laughing fit. It will come as no surprise to anyone who saw Camomile Lawn that it features nudity from Tara Fitzgerald (about half way through the film). Its the kind of thing you tune into on a Sunday evening when there's nothing else on and you can't change the channel because you've lost the role. Fitzgerald makes the film watchable as a spirited woman who inherits her dead fathers estate and wealth and is pursued by several young bachelors. Lookout for Joseph Fiennes who plays a pig farmer.

I watched this film because it includes a performance by Sian Phillips (who is my goddess). I am sorry to say it is a pretty dreadful production all round - as gloomy and tedious as they come, with performances that for the most part can best be described as adequate. One notable exception is the portrayal of a fishmonger by Barbara Young (Sadie from the TV series "Family Affairs"); it is a very small role, but she plays it to perfection.

It may be worth mentioning, for the benefit of sensitive viewers, that toward the end of this film there is some quite horrific violence that seems wholly out of place in view of the preceding tone. I felt sickened - not because I am squeamish, but because I felt that this was a desperate attempt to enliven a terminally dreary story.