Cold Comfort Farm

Most movie versions of books are disappointing because a good book is always a far richer experience, but this one doesn't shame its source. In fact it's an amusing romp, largely because all the actors are letter perfect -- not easy with a broadly satiric story like this one. Flora Poste's romantic notions actually produce positive results with the loutish Starkadders, such as matching the etiolated Elfine with her true love and sending the smoldering Seth off to become an American film star, while Flora herself ends the movie linked to her own very suitable suitor. Dialogue and motion picture scenery cannot reproduce the exquisitely sly writing of Stella Gibbons, however, so if you liked this movie, by all means read the 1932 book. It's a classic parody of rustic melodrama.

Cold Comfort Farm has been and remains one of my favorite movies of all time. Why? Simple: it is hilarious, has a star-studded and perfect ensemble cast, and is a beautiful adaptation of an equally, if not more hilarious, book. When one thinks about this movie, one always returns to the cast and how well-suited they were for their roles. Kate Beckinsale fits perfectly in the role of London débutante Flora Poste who, like Jane Austen, "could not endure a mess." Ian McKellen plays his role to fire and brimstone perfection. Rufus Sewell is remarkably well suited as the smoldering Seth with his brooding eyes and husky, outdoors-y sentiments. Eileen Atkins plays the extremely depressed, reverse-Oedipal mother of Seth in all her exceptional oddness. This is but naming a few of the fabulous cast members that fills this film. The film itself is beautifully filmed and beautifully acted. I would highly recommend it to anyone who 1)enjoys subtle British humor and 2)just enjoys an all-around excellent film.

The first time I saw CCF I walked out of the theater wondering whether or not I liked it. The more I thought about it and a couple rentals later and I love this movie. It's funny on so many different levels you've really got to dedicate a few viewings before passing final judgment.

This is one of the few movies I'd put in the same category as "Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" - movies that get funnier the more times you watch them.

This film was produced for BBC television but had a theatrical release the next year -- probably to take advantage of the popularity of all those Jane Austen movies (Emma, Persuasion, et. al.) It is not a Jane Austen story, but it is a sort of genial romance/comedy of manners (set in the early 1930's?) with a plucky, bright, but penniless heroine. The book it was based on was actually a parody of Gothic romance fiction. Even though this movie is played for laughs (and has many), it still manages to make you care for the characters. Everything works here and (editing, cinematography, performances) and you really appreciate what the director, John Schlesinger, managed to do on a probably skimpy budget.

This movie was the first I ever saw of Kate Beckinsale and I thought she was fantastic in it. I remained a fan for a long while, even though her subsequent movie performances (and choices) have been awful. She finally lost me with her recent laughable turn in Van Helsing. Nevertheless, she WAS good in Cold Comfort Farm, so if you're no fan of Beckinsale don't let that dissuade you from seeing this movie.

Other standouts in the cast are Eileen Atkins, Rufus Sewell, and Ian McKellen who is screamingly funny as a fire and brimstone preacher.

This film is definitely worth having on video or DVD in that it bears up very well to repeated viewings. I've seen it at least 5 times since its release, and my estimation of it rises with each viewing.

If you are searching for comparisons to help you decide whether to watch "Cold Comfort Farm" imagine a slightly older "Pollyanna" going to live on a rundown version of "Babe's" English farm with a strange and bleak collection of her country cousins.

This is an excellent and very earthy adaptation of Stella Gibbon's 1932 satirical novel (which itself is an odd marriage of Hardy and Wodehouse). Where the village pub is named "The Condemned Man" and the cows are named Aimless, Feckless, Graceless, and Pointless. Both the novel and its adaptation are joyfully depressing and packed with literary eccentricity and subtle humor. If you like "Faulty Towers" then you can expect to get off on the humor. But if you prefer "Hot Shots! Part Deux", you should probably pass on "Cold Comfort Farm".

There are three possible viewer reactions: It's not funny. I didn't figure out it was a comedy until halfway through but then I found it hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing.

Kate Beckinsale plays Flora Poste (always referred to by her relatives as Robert Poste's daughter), a recently orphaned 19 year old who chooses to live with relatives (the Starkadders) she has never met, at gloomy Cold Comfort Farm in Sussex. Beckinsale, even more radiant than usual, pulls off a nice characterization of the resourceful yet snobbish heroine. Like Pollyanna, she is a catalyst for positive change, but they are calculated changes. Her instinctive snobbishness (Beckinsale has a real talent for this) is played for laughs since everyone would feel a bit superior and distanced from this eccentric collection of misfits.

The adaptation nicely incorporates Gibbons's subtle parody of Jane Austen romantic clichés, from the controlling madwoman in the attic to wood nymph poetess, to the quivering parishioners. Even the production design is a funny send-up of the standard BBC mini-series look.

This is really a terrific production, doubly so for Beckinsale fans.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.