Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

When I was eleven years old, I was sent away to boarding school in the English spa town of Malvern, where I spent the three worst and most miserable years of my life. Three times per term, my parents were allowed to visit for what were called exeat weekends, and when they did, they stayed at one of the many stiflingly mediocre hotels to be found in Malvern at that time. These hotels were full of the genteel poor portrayed in Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, long term residents. Many had spent their lives overseas, with no real roots in the UK and with no relatives who wanted to know them, and coming from ex colonies where they had lived with servants, they had little idea of how to fend for themselves. I get the feeling that writer Elizabeth Taylor must have spent time in some of the very places my parents stayed, and where I was forced to eat many an overcooked dinner served in hushed tones by wait-staff very similar to the ones shown here! Possibly Ruth Sacks who adapted the screenplay and director Dan Ireland visited too. Unfortunately few of the people I encountered at these run down spa hotels were half as interesting as the people who inhabit the Claremont, and there were definitely no Rupert Friend look-alikes to stir my pre-teen heart.

The story is transposed to London. Finding herself alone in her twilight years and with her family too busy to be interested in her, Mrs Palfrey, a woman who is still looking at life with interest and optimism, (and who presumably has at least some disposable income), moves into the Claremont Hotel, a slightly down at heel relic, and finds herself befriending a local young writer Ludovic, played by the appealing Rupert Friend, who was so noticeable as wicked Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice in 2005. Ludovic is a throwback to a bygone era of Romanticism, sensitive and idealistic, and they find mutual territory in poetry and gentle friendship despite the age difference. Ludovic finds himself being utilised as a stand in for Mrs Palfrey's real grandson, who never returns her calls, and who can't take the time out of his busy life to have dinner with his granny.

Joan Plowright is riveting as Mrs Palfrey. What a masterclass in acting this is! The other assorted characters are interesting and amusing in their own way, but are really presented as stereotypes, whereas Mrs Palfrey is seen as a well rounded human being with vulnerabilities, interests and needs as well as keen intelligence. For me, what makes this movie work so well, is that Mrs Palfrey, a Brit of a certain generation, has a fairly no-nonsense approach to life, so it never sinks into sentimentality, and there are no ponderous, sugar coated scenes where she tries to impart the wisdom of her years to her young acolyte. The simple message – as far as there is one – is that friendship matters and that the elderly may have interesting stories to tell if we bother to listen. A lovely movie.

Dan Ireland has created a very touching movie about the dignities and indignities of life intertwined that we all face in varying degrees, and how those occurrences can be changed in a moment. Joan Plowright as Mrs. Palfrey was next to perfect in her role of aging recent widow moved to London and living in a residence hotel in order to get on with the next phase of her life in the most pleasing and dignified ways possible for a woman of her certain age. Most interestingly, Mr. Ireland showed well the odd, standoffish and sterile way the English live and dine in residence hotels, as it was shown to be as entertaining as it was quaint, lonely and sad at times. But, things were soon going to change.............

Mrs Palfrey chanced to meet a handsome but very poor busker who helped her after a fall she had on a sidewalk outside of his spartan flat. Thus blossomed one of the finest film friendships between those of vastly differing ages that I have seen since Harold and Maude. The caring and loving way Rupert Friend's struggling young man character took to Mrs. Palfrey, and was returned by her, was perhaps not something we would not see in a thousand years in real life with most young people today, but its unlikeliness was just the right recipe here for giving both the attention, happiness and improved self worth they both desperately needed at that point in their lives. The entire story was about that blossoming friendship and the rewarding gift it gave to each of them.

Gift yourself and see this film story for a quiet and very high quality perception of aging, life circumstances and the deep value of true friendship, all of which battered down all doors of convention and showed well that true and loving human connections will always be made by differing people having the level of desire and need to do so.

You know the difference between your Mom's home made, hand-made-with-love cookies and the mass produced things in the supermarket? Well Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is a hand-made-with-love movie.

I can't imagine anyone not being moved by this story of a friendship between and elderly (and still beautiful) lady and a sensitive young man of 26.

For me (not much younger than Mrs Palfrey) this was a double treat as the film contains so many wonderful old actors, people who have been in the business, excelling at their art for decades. It must have been daunting for the younger ones to be on set with all these gems.

Particularly nice to see Georgina Hale, who has the most unusual speech delivery which perfectly comes out as an 'elderly foible' in the movie but is, in fact, the way she talks all the time - wonderful! Dear old Robert Lang died shortly after the movie finished shooting, so it was dedicated to him - a fine tribute for a great actor.

There was just one tiny thing I would have liked - the backstory. It's not until 3/4 way through the movie that we realise why this obviously well-heeled lady (you have to be to afford full board in an hotel in Langham Place!) chose to move to London. Ostensibly it is to be near her grandson but he clearly has no time for her and never did. She's moved from Scotland but would have been better off in a village, a small community, not in the soulless city. So that's a bit of a problem, she simply doesn't have enough reason for such a radical change of scene.

But I'm being picky and the film deserves every plaudit - doesn't need Oscars, leave them for the glitzy trash, this is way, way above Oscar level. This is genius and near perfection.

There has been some criticism that it's too sugary, that a young man would never befriend an old lady but this is ridiculous. Though Taylor's Ludo was not quite as open-hearted as the character played so equisitely by Rupert Friend, I know from personal experience that such friendships are not only possible but frequent.

So, if you want to see some of Britain's real stars, home-made goodies every one, acting with sensitivity, humour and considerable charm, this is the film to see - take someone you love. Take hankies too.

MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT is an elegant, moving story of a lovely woman of age on a journey to find something meaningful again in her life and literally "trips" into the life of a young man on his own journey to find himself as a writer. Many will think of HAROLD AND MAUDE, but MRS. PALFREY is a much more enticing film of two people, no matter the age, who happen to come into each other's lives at a time when they become very important to each other in the self repair of their own images. A brilliant, wonderful, beautifully presented film.

Joan Plowright as Mrs. Palfrey is so lovely on the screen and in her meeting the handsome Rupert Friend, Ludvic, seems to take on a glow of happiness and pleasure as their friendship deepens and they become more involved in each other's lives. Their scenes in the lovely parks of London as well as the interiors of the Claremont are scenes that have humor, compassion and great understanding between them. This is something which is missing in both their relationships with their own families.

Through Mrs. Palfrey, and their conversations about film, Ludvic is able to find a young woman who loves him for himself, and as Mrs. Palfrey's journey ends, his begins with the happiness and satisfaction of having found not only Mrs. Palfrey, but someone who will be with him in his life, and truly love him for the man he is.

As Oscar season approaches, Joan Plowright's MRS. PALFREY is a film to remember, honor and cherish.

I went into the Paris Theatre in New York last night, more as a refuge from the merciless weather that anything else. What a wonderful and unexpected surprise. Joan Plowright plays a widow who decides to live her last years of her life as an independent woman in a small retirement hotel in London. I'm not sure if she knew that independence sometimes means loneliness but she learns soon enough as loneliness becomes her constant companion. Her only grandson never calls, in fact nobody ever calls her. A fortuitous encounter with a young struggling writer will change her life as she will change his. This beautiful and seemingly simple story is filled with startling gems. Joan Plowright very much at the heart of the piece gives a multi-layered performance that never falls into sentimentality. Rupert Friend (Ludo, the struggling writer) is a perfect foil for the world she protectively stores in her brain and in her heart. The humor and the superb performances by the elderly guests of the hotel is a breath of fresh vintage air. When Ruper Friend meets Dame Joan's friends at the hotel, he exclaims "We're trapped in a Terence Rattigan play" Yes you are, beautifully so