SnoopyStyle Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) is a superficial young woman recently orphaned with no work skills. She tells her friend Mrs. Mary Smiling (Joanna Lumley) that she wants to be a writer but only when she's 53 after some living. She is counting on living off of her relatives but only a few of her country relatives offer. Distant cousin Judith Starkadder (Eileen Atkins) offers the rundown Cold Comfort Farm. She is married to Amos (Ian McKellen) and has a womanizing son in Seth (Rufus Sewell). Flora insists on bettering the unhappy farm.This is a comedy but just not really my kind of comedy. It's based on a British comic novel from the '30s. It skewers the romantization of the English country farm life from British literature. It's a dated comedy from another era and it's British. It has its charms but I can't find any big laughs.

briansnat I had never heard of this movie, but found it on a list of "under-appreciated period movies". Being a huge fan of period dramas such as adaptations of Austen, Bronte, et. al. I decided to give it a try. My wife only asked that I chose "Something pleasant" for our evening's viewing. The creepy opening scene had both of us wondering whether I made a bad choice, but the movie soon switched pace. We didn't realize at first that it was a comedy, but found ourselves laughing almost immediately.Many other reviews have gone into the plot, acting and faithfulness to the book (which I haven't read), so I won't bother with all that.I'll just say that this movie kept us engaged and laughing. The delightful sort of movie that leaves you with a smile on your face and makes you want to see it again. And it makes you really are about about this wacky family. It reminds me of Frank Capra's wonderful "You Can't Take It With You" in that respect.The only negative is that ever since we saw this my wife has been cracking me up by saying "I saw something nasty in the woodshed" when least expected.

themadyank-254-181194 Let me preface my remarks by saying that I love Masterpiece Theatre and most British farces. Perhaps this particular effort was lacking in some cohesion that might have held my attention. Although the characters were certainly characters and the incongruities certainly incongruous, nothing about this movie satisfied my curiosity. The cast was terrific and their acting was quite good but the storyline seemed unhinged. If a lot of the book was omitted the movie didn't prompt me to even consider reading it. I was left with the uncomfortable feeling of having watched a bunch of oddities that somehow were never properly connected. And the denouement (a final part of a story or drama in which everything is made clear and no questions or surprises remain) was completely useless in that regard since it left me with more questions than I had before. What a disappointment this dog of a flick was.

treeline1 It is the 1930s, and London gadabout Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) has just been orphaned. With no options or ambition (except to experience life and become a writer), she goes to live in the country with distant relatives. Upon arriving at the dilapidated farm, she finds its inhabitants are all gloomy, filthy, wretched oafs, so naturally she sets about improving their lives.This basic plot has been done before, most notably in "Amelie," but this BBC movie is terrible. There's no humor, the characters are all off-putting, and the changes Flora brings about - including turning a spaced-out naïf into a debutante, a deranged hermit into a fine lady, and a bumbling farm hand into a Hollywood star - are completely unbelievable. As Flora, Beckinsale is flat and tiresome and the relatives are reduced to English hillbillies. This is a tedious and unappealing movie.