kijii This is the second movie version of Elizabeth von Arnim's novel. This low-action movie is about seven very different kinds of people who are thrown together for a time. One thing they all have in common is that, without realizing it, their lives in post-war London had become routine, humdrum, and fossilized.Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence) is dominated by her conservative and controlling husband, Mellersh (Alfred Molina). He is trying to build his law practice with influential people and needs his wife to reflect his conservatism in social situations. Also, he is teaching her to be frugal with her money by writing down all of her expenditures. Lottie, on the other hand, is more non-conventional than that. She dreams of something that will jar her lose from her London life—if only for a little while. She is attracted when she sees an advertisement in a newspaper for a one-month rental of a secluded villa on the Italian cost.Realizing that she doesn't have the money to do it by herself, she approaches a fellow member from her ladies social club, Rose Arbuthnot (Miranda Richardson). Rose is married to a rather common and unimaginative man, Frederick (Jim Broadbent), who writes spicy (but profitable) romance novels, mainly for women. Rose and Fredrick are in a non-ideal marriage; his work doesn't mix well with her strongly-held conventional religious feelings. The two women go to see the man who owns the castle, George Briggs (Michael Kitchen). George is a shy lonely man living in a large London home. When they meet George, they learn that he plays a plaintive musical instrument that he feels sums him up: he plays the oboe. The two women give George a down payment for their month in his Italian castle, San Salvatore.When they realize that another woman, a Mrs. Fisher, wants the castle for the same month, they visit her at her home. Mrs. Fisher (Joan Plowright) is an older woman who lives alone but has connections with VIPs all over London. She is an intellectually haughty woman who constantly drops the names of all of the great literary figures that she had known from her childhood on. These had been dead in the early 1920s (the setting for this story) but were still well known in British literary circles: George Meredith and Alfred Lord Tennyson, to name a couple. When Lottie innocently asks Mrs. Fisher if she knew Keats, Mrs. Fisher snaps back. "NO, I most certainly did NOT know Keats--nor Shakespeare--nor Chaucer, either." As if so say, "How old do you think I am, anyway?" The opening relationship between Mrs. Fisher and Lottie and Rose is further soured when Mrs. Fisher offers her references and suggests that they do the same. They refuse based on the principle of the situation, and Mrs. Fisher is therefore coaxed into waving off the idea of exchanging references.When the three women arrive at San Salvatore, they find their fourth villa companion there—alone and aloof: the young, attractive, flapper Polly Walker (Caroline Dester). She wants to be left alone. She needs time to re-group after her late husband's death in the war and/or to get away from grabbing men who seem to be constantly drawn towards her.This unlikely foursome is surrounded by a staff of simple Italian servants. Only Polly and Mrs.Fisher speak Italian. But, as Fisher remarks to herself, "Polly's Italian is more suited to the staff since hers is the Italian of the kitchen while Mrs. Fisher's is the Italian of Dante. What's interesting to watch in this movie is how the four women's personalities and outlooks evolve during their month at San Salvatore. This is due to their brightened outlook about themselves, the salutary effect of taking a vacation from their lives in London and escaping from their individual types of loneliness. When George Briggs and the two husbands come to visit San Salvatore, they get a chance to "pair off" and rekindle their marriages or establish new relationships. As Lottie says, "This place is a "Tub of love."

L. Denis Brown Two thirds of nearly 2,000 IMDb users who have voted on this film have rated it at 8, 9 or 10 and one user reports wearing out six videotapes (Was this a record, or merely a faulty VCR?). Although the film is primarily intended as a period piece it clearly has a quite unusual fascination. But for some reason I imagined it as largely whimsy and until recently never felt the urge to watch it. My mind was changed by Elizbeth Von Arnim's original book. My wife loves reading but her sight no longer allows her to read much so she borrowed it in talking book form. Such books are usually irritating to a companion who is busy with other things, but I gradually came to appreciate that this one was seductively soothing, although in no way syrupy, and was also very well written. I realised my wife would enjoy watching the film, and so decided to buy her the videotape. I am now very glad that I did, and would certainly recommend its purchase to anyone else who appreciates a quiet reflective work with no fireworks but with well constructed character development and a very successful pre-Mussolini Italian atmosphere. The story is set in the immediate post WW1 period and starts with two married London ladies who decide to pool their savings and enjoy a holiday together, away from their families, in a rented villa in Italy. Force of circumstances lead to this couple being joined by two others with very different characters and backgrounds. Its theme is essentially no more than the interactions that take place as their holiday progresses, not only between these four very disparate mature ladies, but also with the occasional male visitor. If you want action, thrills, dramatic sex scenes, natural or man-made disasters, or Harlequin style romances this would not be the film for you. But IMDb users have collectively and very emphatically demonstrated that none of these are necessary for a film to prove highly rewarding to watch, and if you care to give it a try you may, as I did, come to rank it among your much loved films.It is fairly rare for me to watch a film of a book with which I am already familiar. In many cases I find this takes some of the pleasure away from watching the film, but here there is such a strong visual appeal in the setting that I actually found my pleasure augmented by the anticipation of seeing the next segment of the book, effectively unrolled before my eyes. (Perhaps Italy itself has some part in this, the last time I had this experience was when I was watching tales from Boccaccio's Decameron on TV.) Generally films of books tend to increase the dramatic level of the original work to ensure that the filmed version has an even wider appeal, but here if anything it is reduced in order to keep the viewers attention on the gradual character development rather than on any background events. This works very well, although changes from the book are few and basically the film remains true to the original story. Great credit is due to the Director, Mike Newell, and all members of the cast, particularly those well known British Actresses who play the four principal ladies.

citsmitha I first saw this movie back in the early '90's when it was first released. Room With a View was also newly out. Enchanted April had so much more to offer! I found it much more real and earthy, the characters more believable for being 'normal'. By the end of the film I felt the same as I did when I first saw the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, I was yearning for the characters to find what they were looking for whether it was isolation, peace, liberty or love. You get a sense throughout that Italy is so far removed from everything they have ever known, that they are so decadent for taking a risk and leaving behind all that is humdrum and constricting. But in the heat of the spring in April, everyone's lives loosen and unravel (in line with the Victorian corsets) and are slowly rebuilt to everyone's satisfaction. What a little gem of a film! How come it isn't more well known?

Chris Y I first saw Enchanted April about five years ago. I loved it so much that my husband surprised me with a copy the following Christmas. It's about two women who decide to rent a castle in Italy for the month of April, leaving their humdrum lives behind them. They are very sad women at the outset of the film, and you can't help but root them on as they plan this get-away with two other women they invite along to share the expenses. This is perhaps the most feel good movie I have ever seen. It' pure and simple, with no car chases, no animosities and no deaths. It was made with care and in very good taste. You cannot help but smile all through it -- except when you're crying happy tears!