Iain Gardiner Sometimes in life we need to believe in something beyond ourselves. Something that plays with our imagination and allows us venture into worlds that go beyond what we can reach out and touch easily. The line in the movie regarding what it's like to be grown up 'that it feels like being someone that isn't 'you'' is pretty accurate. This movie made me feel I'd reconnected with that 'anything is possible' aspect of myself, which is pretty magickal!! I Believe... what you believe is up to you.

Leofwine_draca The tale of the Cottingley Fairy hoax is an endearing - and enduring - one that's been passed down over the ages. The nation was entranced by photographs taken by a pair of girls which apparently showed them playing with fairies at the bottom of their garden. Soon, the scientific community was deriding the photographs as a joke, but others, including Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, remained convinced of their veracity.FAIRY TALE: A TRUE STORY is anything but a true story, taking as it does huge liberties with the original story. These range from the minor and rather enjoyable - Harry Houdini plays a significant role here, not that he did in real life, although I appreciated Harvey Keitel's performance nonetheless - to the extreme, i.e. the sight of CGI fairies floating around. I appreciate that the latter scenes were included to pander to the kids, but I think the film would have done a lot better by leaving it up to the viewer to make his or her own mind up rather than being so blatant about it.Otherwise, attention to period detail is good, and the child performers give strong turns. There's an exemplary supporting cast including Peter O'Toole and Paul McGann. The production values are evidently strong and it's hard to dislike a film telling such a vivid and memorable tale. Another, more adult version of the same story came out at the same time, PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES, although I haven't had the pleasure of that one yet.

Adrian Edwards Like others writing here, I felt a bit cheated that the movie did not focus on the real "true story", which is certainly a better one for an adult audience. Perhaps it would not have had such a general appeal, and would have been less commercial. The notion that it was all a hoax, and yet true at the same time, seemed disingenuous. The story of how grief and loss in the years after the First World War led many to become self-deluded and consequently vulnerable to "psychic" charlatans is a very adult one. Houdini was a hero in the cause of stamping this shoddy business out. He was a champion of reason. I have no problems with films that alter and compress historical events for dramatic reasons, but this film actually negated the essence of the true story and wasted an opportunity. And we were deprived of the delicious final twist, when the surviving girl (by then an old lady) confessed all in the 1980s. The film was an enjoyable fantasy, and could have been presented as being "inspired by, but not based on" actual events (as were Citizen Kane and Personal Services). There is always going to be a problem with films based on true events, and in this case it seemed like a good story trashed.

dan Don't get caught up in the title and the basis of the story, its just a movie but one worth watching. The photography and acting are good enough to pull you out of your reality momentarily and into this fantasy world if you let it. The real plot of the movie is innocents believing in something that the common adult mired in fear can't believe and so wants to expose things that challenge their safe reality as fraud or delusions. However, adults who can look beyond their own fear of the unexplained and embrace the wondrous diversity of life beyond what our senses can explain and with respect, can open new realities and new understanding. They have faith and vision and live in a world were thought becomes reality, through respect for all things, and believe in the joy of creation and discovery.