A Village Affair (1995) was directed by Moira Armstrong from a novel by Joanna Trollope. The plot is fairly basic--a city couple move from London to a country village. Troubles ensue.
However, if you look more closely, troubles were brewing already. Nathaniel Parker plays Martin Jordan, a handsome and successful lawyer. He has two women in his life--his wife, Alice (Sophie Ward) and his mother Cecily Jordan (Claire Bloom). There's no question about who pulls the strings. Cecily is rich, successful, and extraordinarily intrusive.
In the village we meet all the standard British Village Types--the meddling storekeeper, the meddling neighbors, the lord and lady of the manor. Most important, we meet Clodagh Unwin, their wild daughter, recently returned home and looking for something--maybe just trouble. (Also add in visiting evil brother Anthony Jordan, who is a really bad guy. He does everything villainous but twirl his mustache.)
Still, if you can get past, "This is a village. We all know everyone's business," you can enjoy the subtleties of the movie, and the excellent acting. Also, the plot takes some twists and turns for which I wasn't prepared, which certainly makes the film more interesting.
The picture really centers around Alice. Sophie Ward is an excellent Alice. In fact, she reminded me of Lewis Caroll's Alice--beset on every side by new and difficult challenges, and slowly becoming tough enough to cope.
We saw this movie on a used VHS tape. I don't know if it's available in DVD. It worked very well on the small screen.
I wouldn't say "A Village Affair" is a must-see film, but if you can find it, I'd recommend it. It's carrying an abysmal IMDb rating, but it's better than that.
P.S. Notice how neatly director Armstrong frames the movie with the first and last scene.
P.P.S. Take a careful look at daughter Natasha Jordan. It's a tiny role, but great things happened later to the actor who played it.
