eichler2 My wife saw this movie was scheduled to air, uncut, on the MGM channel and recorded it for me, knowing that I'm a big Monty Python and Michael Palin fan. In fact, I'm such a Python fan that I was surprised to find a film starring Palin and Connie Booth (and featuring Simon Jones and Charles McKeown) that I'd somehow never heard of. I'm guessing this movie wasn't very well promoted in the U.S. Which is not surprising, as it deals with the very British subject of life at Oxford university in the nineteenth century and features dramatic roles from actors known on this side of the pond strictly for their comedy.Palin plays Mr. Ashby, a teacher at Oxford who has devoted his entire life to his work and is in line to be voted the next president of the college when the elderly current president meets his end. Despite his protests, Ashby's colleagues insist that he take a vacation. While hiking in the Alps, he meets a single woman his own age (Booth) and her adopted daughter. For reasons that are never explained both women fall instantly and deeply in love with him. Seems pretty unlikely, but there wouldn't be a film without it (and, apparently, this is all based on a true story).Any hint of a romantic relationship would ruin Ashby's chances at the college presidency (fellows at the college are expected to remain celibate), so when the women follow him back to Oxford it becomes a scandal. Naturally Ashby's chief rival for the presidency, Oliver Syme, does everything he can to add fuel to the flames. Somehow, no one seems to notice that Syme himself is a womanizer.In the end, Ashby has to decide whether to keep trying to climb the career ladder at the college or leave and start a new life with one of the two women.So this obviously isn't a Pythonesque comedy - other than a few wry smiles it had hardly any humor at all. But the scenery is beautiful (especially the scenes in the Alps) and the atmosphere and acting are well done. The pace is a bit slow, but it's a period drama so that's to be expected. In the end I enjoyed the movie, even though it wasn't at all what I thought it would be.

davidjanuzbrown This is an excellent movie, with a brilliant performance by Michael Palin as Mr. Ashby. The reality is he was an honorable man (unlike his main competitor to be President of Oxford (Oliver Syme (Alfred Molina)). Keep in mind, he was also a Reverend, and knew things like desiring a woman such as Elinor (Trini Alvarado) was a sin and since the vow of celibacy at Oxford was very important in those days, he knew he would be a hypocrite if he was urging others to follow a policy, he himself did not want to follow). When the movie took place (1866) they did not even allowing women on campus, and it would take until 1959 until they were admitted as students. As it turned out, he made the right decision choosing Eleanor over Oxford, because the movie is based on his Great grandfather Edward Palin and as he said about the woman Elinor is based upon (her name was Brita) "We married in Paris in 1867 and she has made me the happiest of men." Based upon the many laughs that Palin (and Monty Python) have brought to people down through the years, it was a good choice indeed.

trimmerb1234 I confess that I've never found Michael Palin very funny. His desperate mugging in "A Fish Called Wanda" marked a particular low. And his many, many travel documentaries have at times stretched to breaking point his ability to say something interesting about his journeys. But, and against type, his finest work as performer and writer is "American Friends" and it is very fine indeed. Based on the true story of his great grandfather, it is a wonderful, gently comic evocation of the claustrophobic lives - and obligatory bachelorhood - of 1860's Oxford University academics (the repressive world which spawned Lewis Carrol). A wonderfully rich, gently comic performance too by veteran Robert Eddison as the dying head of the college, surrounded at the end simply by his college fellows. Entirely devoted to academic excellence and religiosity, only occasional male horseplay for some ever interrupted their high-minded bachelor lives. The natural candidate to take over as head of the college, the Palin character, thus seemed fated to live and die within its confines just as had his predecessor. Reluctantly persuaded to take a short walking summer holiday alone in the (beautifully filmed) Swiss Alps, suddenly into his late bachelor life comes Womanhood, Beauty - and Love - in the shapes of a middle-aged American lady and her young ward. Again a wonderful poignant dignified performance by Connie Booth; her young ward's youth and beauty making her suddenly aware that her own looks and prospects are now both very much on the downward slope.An inauthentic jarring note was Alfred Molina's portrayal of Palin's academic rival; so openly leering, crude and dissolute, it was difficult to imagine that he could have coexisted with his high-minded fellows - unless they were so very unworldly that they failed to understand him.Curiously very reminiscent indeed of "Goodbye Mr Chips" (1935), arguably American Friends is a far better film; subtle, gentle and beautiful. Palin was a student at Oxford and there is affection, respect and an intense attention to period feel in his portrayal of the character and the place.

bob the moo Rev Francis Ashby is a bookish and retiring don at Oxford who reluctantly gives in to his colleagues insistences that he go for a holiday. Enjoying the peace and quiet in the Alps he is initially disturbed by the arrival of a group including an American woman (Caroline) and her teenager ward (Elinor). However, acting as their guide when the rest of the group returns to the lodgings, Ashby starts to fall for the darling Elinor but, after slight bonding, he is called back immediately due to the failing health of the college president. When his American friends come to Oxford to visit, their arrival throws the college into a tizzy and he finds himself in competition with others for not only the role of president but also for the hearts of his friends.Watching this film for the third time since its release in the early nineties I decided to review it and, looking at the title page was astonished (yes, really) to see that only 106 people have voted on it. I know this is not a total representation of how many people have actually seen it but I was surprised how such a well-known film appears to be underseen (although it may say more about the demographics of those that use this site most). This is not to imply that it is an excellent film but it is a well paced film that is enjoyable on its own terms. For those expecting great sentiment you will be let down, likewise those expecting a Merchant Ivory film, or a very comic film but those open to a nicely sensitive little tale that is slightly comic but more enjoyable for being restraining and being very true to the Englishness of its subjects and the polite behaviour of the period.Based on his own grandfather's diaries, Palin has done a good job as both writer and director to capture the period and deal with the subject in a way that is unshowy but not stale, sensitive and patient but never dull and comic without ever being so crude as to actually make you laugh out loud. It isn't fantastic of course but it is nicely lowkey and it is enjoyable for what it is. As actor Palin continues this good work and he delivers a very restrained and shy performance – even more amazing when you think this is a Python! Booth and Alvarado are both very attractive and restrained at the same time and effective if not memorable. Molina, currently playing a superhero baddie, plays a 'baddie' of another sort here and he pitches his character well to be dastardly while still keeping within the period. Support from Jones, Firth, Eddison and others is good and they all keep to the period and the material yet.Overall this is not an amazing film or even a really good one, but what it is is a well written period drama that is delivered well enough to prevent it being dull and it comes over as a nice little film that is pleasing to watch even if it never sets the screen on fire. An undervalued little drama that is a well handled, very personal film from Palin who does very well in all three of his roles.