Bob W

Loved it. Loved the character and loved the actor. It's there anything Benedict Cumberbatch can't do?

This is a hard movie not to love. It's not what you think. It's not a feel good come-from-behind kids sports movie. Not at all. It's a great story about a great sport pulling people together, but it's so much more. For a white person like me, I learned a little about kids growing up in really tough, poor, dangerous neighborhoods. I got some insights. Maybe gained some compassion. It's a beautiful beautiful movie.

Delightful farce with great heart. Amy Adams is a scream as a ditzy broad trying to sleep her way to stardom. Frances McDormand is sensational as a nearly destitute governess who can't hold a job but has high principles. This movie is a perfect confection. And the music!

There is a beguiling kindness and sadness to this period piece about a cold nasty English upperclass town bully (played to perfection by Patricia Clarkson), and all of her enablers, who systematically undermine the vulnerable, charming, credulous Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) who plays a WWII war widow in the 1950s trying to open a bookshop in a quaint conservative English village. Bill Nighy gives a fine nuanced performance as an older, crusty, painfully introverted, recluse who loves to read. He falls for Florence and tries to come to her rescue. There's a novelistic formality to this deliberately paced film in keeping with the period and it's subject matter. All the acting is very fine. It's a bit like going to the theatre. Pallette and locations are rich and gorgeous. The film seems gauzy at first but there's a dark, bittersweet quality that examines power roles and the bully's subtle evil.