Tortoise in Love

This film is delightful and humorous. It is about people and their Relationships. Even the most beautiful people do not have an easy time When they are in love.

The boy with the love of aircraft gives a splendid performance of a sad boy neglected by his father but supported by the estate workers.

This is a gentle film and beautifully photographed. It is homage to the goodness of people, the ingeniousness of the rural community and so many things good about England that "commercial" filmmakers neglect to tell us about.

It is a must for viewing by every rural film society and likely to Become a perennial favorite.

Tom mitchelson is "Thomas, the gardener" for a fancy estate. When the new polish governess (alice zawadzki) arrives to look after young Harry, she is quite the beauty. Thomas is quite taken with her. This one is a silly, fun love story, with lots of quirky, real people. Grandma is fun, but off her rocker. And she wants to have a festival like the good ol' days. Stand back! Lots of running gags in this one. Plain, simple fun. Fair amount of laughs. Jokes about dating. Jokes about married life. Moves pretty slowly.. will Tom ever get together with the governess? It's okay. Probably meant for a younger audience? Written and directed by Guy Browning. This is the first, and only film written by, or directed by him.

Having heard the story about the making of the film (a community project)and the relative success I was full of anticipation and wanted to enjoy it. Sadly, while it starts well, by about ten minutes in it very much feels like a film made by two different groups of people professionals and amateurs.

The settings and locations are great and make pleasant viewing, the cinematography is lovely and the sound track fitting, however the script is truly lame and the story paper thin with no character development even attempted. As a viewer I was left with the sense that the film had been built around a few key scenes / jokes which while mildly amusing simply aren't enough to carry an hour and a half, and that therefore the script writer was either too lazy or too arrogant to care.

The two leads and the young boy all look good on screen and do a reasonable job with the terribly weak material and some clunking dialogue "your lips are a rocket and mine are the landing station" The rest of the acting is split and the experience/talent of the likes of Stephen Elder, Ivan Kaye, Lesley Staples and Mike Kemp only serves to accentuate the weaknesses of some of the other actors who display everything from just plain ineptness on screen to wild over acting, random gesticulation and weird accents.

It's a film version of an am-dram performance and like am dram performances it's really only of interest if you are in it or know someone who is.

Loved this film: sweet, innocent AND charming. Plus it made me laugh out loud at least three times. The audience in the cinema chuckled throughout. Now I know that it was made entirely by a village in Oxfordshire, I think it's even better than I did at the time. The lead characters are both very engaging. Tom, the gardener is very handsome and sweet, although you don't ever quite get to know why he's so shy around Anyer. Some scenes are very eccentric in a typically English way, with men running around in drag or horse costumes. It made me want to visit the village and be part of the proper community spirit. Lots of jokes knocking bankers and the upper classes, which mostly hit the nail on the head. Overall - My husband and I agreed we both left the cinema happier than when we went in.

Well, people from UK certainly know very well what was behind this movie but for me, living far abroad, it was a total surprise. I watched it as I do with many other movies and it was only after the end that I went and checked on Guy Browning and discovered the facts.

So my opinion, unworthy as it always is, was at least totally unbiased.

I found it charming, especially the sentimental education Tortoise receives from his neighbors about what women really want… I found that Guy Browning showed originality (which is something I value the most) and did a good job.

May be village annual party was a bit too long and repetitive, may be Anya's character could have had a deeper development but in the end the joy of making the movie and the good life of Kingston Bagpuize pass in the film and that's enough.