The Lightkeepers

I don't normally watch movies like this. I watched it because I liked Tom Wisdom in Dominion. This is a sweet story of two men (one older, one younger) who have lost themselves and lost love and find it all again. The costumes are beautiful, especially the women's dresses, and the setting is beautiful and the various accents are well done.

A few minutes into this film I became interested in it's origin. Lo and behold it dates back over a decade before the Great war. A somewhat simpler time to the century following that conflict.

This story is a novelization of an earlier short story perhaps a decade it's junior. I feel this an important fact to remember. Darwin is but a few years in the past and Orwell decades in the future... A simpler time. (Perhaps I give the era less respect than I should?)

It seems to me the original author enjoyed writing while wearing rose glasses. Certainly he enjoyed himself and the place in which his stories are portrayed...

But to the film you dolt, this is IMDB!!!

The film reflects it's origin. Ben Hur it is not. Nor does it want or intend to be. This is light entertainment. It does indeed call to mind actual people and events that can and do happen. It is not as unrealistic as some in this later age may think.

Bottom line. If you are relaxed, happen to simply wish to be entertained with a simple tale involving enjoyable characters, you may enjoy this. If however you expect the earth to shake and experience a life changing revelation, this is not for you.

I enjoyed it, was mildly surprised at times, and happy for the characters.

The cast is great. Bruce Dern is in it!!! More like a play than a film in many ways.

Nice.

Take an old book "The Women Haters" and apparently faithfully reproduce it to film (or video?) (or dsc?) and you use actors that know how to act, enjoy their job, and give to the audience and you have THE LIGHTKEEPERS. I for one was so happy to see Mr. Dreyfus and Miss Danner in something again. Also Mamie Gummer, daughter of Meryl Streep...I knew I was in good hands. I had not had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Wisdoms work before but will certainly be looking for him, now. The movie was NOT of today, it was slow and pleasant and sweet with a bit of mystery and romance. My cup of tea! A nice change from what we usually see these days. Oh and of course the setting was lovely!

virtue - the cast. but it is not a great virtue. Richard ZDreyfuss is a kind of Santa in a strange story. the script is a tunnel without beginning or end.the Hallmark atmosphere and the slices of Summer dream are not convincing. it is a nice film. but expectations are not very small. and the result is an easy - amusing tale about love as turkey in which ingredients are too many.an ordinary ring with a precious stone. is it enough ? not exactly. in fact, it is a yellow picture , with few nostalgic words, in which faces, houses, light are absent. and imagination is the instrument to create reality of that time. sure, details are good thing. but a bath costume or a happy end are not reasonable price.

This film is the kind of movie you wish you could see all the time. It was sweet, a bit slow but not obnoxiously so and well acted. Richard Dreyfuss is one of my favorites and he is perfectly curmudgeonly in this movie. Tom Wisdom is delightful and Blythe Danner was gorgeous! Mamie Gummer's face kept taunting me until I looked her up and discovered she is Meryl Streep's daughter. She was very understated in the film and is quite a good actress. There was mystery in the film, which was not what I expected. It reminded me of the old British comedy of manners films where there is misdirection and mistaken identities. It was a fun movie to watch and I would recommend it to anyone who likes films that are thoughtful and amusing. I just loved it!