To Olivia

Film reviewers seem to be generally not a very bright group pf people, and the negative reviews this film has gotten are absurd. IGNORE THE REVIEWS. This is an excellent film, based on the true story of the writer Roald Dahl and his wife, the Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal. Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes play the lead roles brilliantly and capture the tragedy they endured when they lost their young daughter Olivia to measles, before the vaccination for this dangerous disease became available in England, where they lived. (Note to any idiotic Anit-Vaxxers reading this - GET YOUR KIDS VACCINATED NOW!) This is a beautiful, very inspirational story.

Hugh Bonneville is excellent as Dahl, even looks like him, and Keeley does a workmanlike job as Patricia Neal but there's little to enjoy about the film really. It's largely factual so a good way to learn more about Dahl's life. I've given it 7 as I can't really fault the acting but it's a pretty gloomy piece all in all.

I was thoroughly enjoying this film and felt like it was getting to the midway point just to notice it only had 15 mins left to go!!!!

I honestly think they should have made a mini series about Roald Dahl and this been the first episode!

It Was a fantastic story but felt unfinished! The acting was superb and the casting was perfect, BUT It left me longing for more... there are so more stories left untold in regards to his life that I'd loved to have seen too!!

I highly recommend this if you don't expect to have a lot of his life covered only a year or so during a painful part of his career.

I don't want to say to much about what happens, I suppose the trailer does say. This is a film about a famous couple in the 60's dealing with their grief when losing a child. The pain, the loss the love. A loving family trying to pick up the pieces, to regain their strength and stay a family for the rest of their children. This is a moving and sad movie but really good about a very famous couple. Very well acted by all the cast.

It's an emotional story but jumps from scene to scene in parts which I found annoying. The young actress who played Tessa was excellent. Hugh Bonneville was fine as Dahl. Keeley Hawes, my absolutely favourite British actress, is a quintessential English rose and the American accent didn't suit her and wasn't very good. It's often the little things they get wrong that ruin an otherwise good film for me. The 2-year old boy appeared randomly, silent and unmoving and was barely mentioned.. When Roald threw a clod of earth at the window to attract Pat's attention, that clod moved about several times in the scenes that followed, sometimes disappearing altogether then returning in a different place. Don't they have continuity editors any more? Other than that, it was pleasant to watch with a decent storyline but I got a sense of a film that they'd rushed to get finished.