Customer Reviews

My House in Umbria

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I saw this lovely film on HBO, and it's to their immense credit that this film was seen at all. This film would never be released by a major studio these days. They are only concerned with huge blockbuster movies, yet anyone who cares about a strong, emotional story, set in gorgeous Umbria and starring Maggie Smith shouldn't miss this gem.

Maggie Smith stars as an aging romance novelist living in splendid isolation in her villa in the Umbrian countryside. On a shopping trip, the train she's traveling on is bombed by terrorists. When the dust is settled, Smith, and several of the travelers who shared her compartment, are in the hospital, including a little girl who has lost her parents. Smith generously offers her home as a refuge for the survivors to recuperate.

The traumatized little girl can't speak. Smith's heart goes out to her, and she does her best to make her as comfortable as possible. Smith's rather bohemian character, as well as her fondness for cocktails makes her a slightly madcap, tipsy hostess. Rather lonely of late, this unexpected intrusion in her life makes her feel needed. There's a young man with a secret to hide, and an older pensioner who round out the group. Then the little girl's uptight uncle (played with unstated eloquence by Chris Cooper) comes to take custody of his brother's orphaned daughter.

Smith is devasted by his coldness, his disapproval, and senses that he simply is taking the girl out of a sense of duty to his brother.

I won't give anymore of the plot away. Dame Maggie won a well-deserved Emmy for her superb portrayal of a middle-aged spinster, lonely for love, and with her own tragic past, who finds a purpose in her life in the aftermath of tragedy. The script is superb, the Italian settings and the gorgeous period costumes as well as fine work from a strong cast, make this a memorble viewing experience.

Nobody captures loneliness as truthfully as Dame Maggie. She's been doing it throughout her long career, as Rod Taylor's assistant in the bloated VIPs, as the headstrong teacher in THE PRME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, as the actress nominated for an Oscar in CALIFORNIA SUITE, and countless other memorable screen portraits. Highly recommended.

Despite the excellent performance of Maggie Smith, spectacular clothes she changes every so often, and beautiful nature of Umbria surroundings, the film, though interesting to watch, leaves the taste of unsatisfaction. In the final account, it is shallow and full of clichés

This movie is very touching. It may not be the most surprising or action packed of movies, but it can touch you if you let it. So many people, all touched by the same tragedy, having to come together, and share and learn and grow together. I think you'll enjoy it.

I am a great Maggie Smith fan, so when I found this movie, I had to see it. I must say, in my opinion I would classify it as an "Artsy-Fartsy" movie... but in spite of that, I LOVED IT. To a certain degree, I think everyone can identify with a life full of pains and sorrows, and still being able to help out others when they are in need. This is the description of true humanity... to see past your own pains, and lend a hand to someone else. The only thing in my opinion that makes this unsuitable for pre-teens, other than excessive alcohol consumption to mask emotional pain, is that there is a quick flash of Mrs Delahuntys upper torso, at one point.

If you are a fan of Maggie Smith then you must not miss this special film. This Beautiful Heartfelt story was a welcome switch for me in contrast to all the violence on HBO as of late. An easy-going movie with beautiful scenery will be a nice addition to your collection.

I liked this movie. It is a nice story with some interesting characters with Maggie Smith upholding the entire film. She is always superb and she doesn't disappoint here. The scenery is fabulous and gets you dreaming of fabulous Italian vistas and villas. The ending is somewhat predictable but heartwarming. If you like period drama with a nice story, no sex or bad language, or violence, then you would like this. If you like cut em up, eat em up type movies this is not for you. You would find it dull.

Wealthy Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) is traveling on the train to Milan when a bomb explodes in her compartment, killing several people. The survivors - an elderly British General, a young German man, an 8-year old American girl, and Emily - recover in the same hospital and, having nowhere to go, go to live with Emily in her large home in Umbria. The four enjoy their life together until the day that Emily's withdrawn uncle (Chris Cooper) comes to take her away.

This-made-for-HBO movie has all the right ingredients to make a memorable film except one - a good script. Nothing much happens in the movie after the explosion, the quartet just luxuriates in living the good life in an elegant villa. The only character that is developed is that of Emily, and Maggie Smith gives her usual first-rate performance and is truly fascinating. But she's hampered by a plot that goes nowhere; it just wanders aimlessly looking like an Italian travelogue and then ends.

The scenery is, of course, breathtaking and Smith wears a very chic wardrobe, but we have no reason to care about the characters. There is no drama or tension; the whole story proceeds in such a lackadaisical fashion that I wanted to quit watching, but hoped (in vain) that it was all leading to something worthwhile. Disappointing.

I am still undecided on this one.

I really like Dame Maggie Smith. Initially I liked the woman she was cast as - especially the internal dialogue she had as she assessed people around her (in the intuitive, and perhaps at times, overly imaginative nature of a writer). However, I found her character grew irritating as the movie progressed. She kept pursuing Chris Cooper's character. The ruder he was to her, the more she followed him. Suddenly her intuition evaporates and she seems pathetic.

There was so much more warmth and interest in the moments when she interacted with the other characters - especially the elderly gentleman who had lost his daughter. But these relationships were cut short by her increasing (and - to me - eventually irrational) obsession with River-Smith (the Chris Cooper character). The scene with him in his bedroom did not really make sense to me. Are you really going to begin to undress with someone who is being so dramatically hateful to you - no matter how drunk you are?

My favorite part of the story surrounded the German man. I truly liked his character. I was shocked when he turned out to be linked to the bombing. But there was such a grace in how Dame Maggie's character was able to forgive him. And such sorrow in him as he tried to help the little girl (whose parents he realized he had taken from her).

That bizarre element was the one redeeming thing for me from the movie. How easy it is to hate people you don't know. How it becomes conceivable to forgive people once you know them, once you eat with them, and they build a garden with you.

My friend and I were very disappointed with this DVD when we watched it last night. The whole movie was a mass of incongruities and unlikely events. The movie tale begins when a terrorist bomb blows up in a railway carriage, killing four, slightly injuring three, and leaving one physically unscathed (although suffering from a poorly acted amnesia by the child in the movie). Is it likely that a bomb intended to blow a plane out of the sky would only slightly injure three people and leave one totally untouched, while killing four, when it goes off accidentally in an enclosed railway carriage? Very unlikely.
The group that goes to Maggie Smith's (Emily Delahunty's) house after their brief hospitalization seem wooden enough to be sleepwalkers. There is no chemistry between the characters. The little girl, Aimee (or Amy) has no endearing traits that would lead Maggie Smith's character to become deeply attached to her in two days. In fact, the child doesn't act at all in this movie. There are also threads that lead nowhere, people whose relationships just don't jell, and character behaviour that makes no sense. For example, one scene has Maggie Smith's character forcing an unwilling guest to listen to her story of her unfortunate past. Why would Maggie Smith's character suddenly start unburdening herself of her childhood trauma to a wooden, unfriendly, and totally unlikeable visiting American?
Another example of unlikely events is the sudden presenting of the Emily Delahunty character as being a lush. This is not at all apparent at first and then is suddenly thrust upon us as she doesn't appear in any later scenes without a glass in her hand. She starts out the movie as an intelligent, sensitive, sober woman and finishes as a stumbling lush. Very strange and incongruous. And why would someone with such a huge drinking problem that she starts at 9 a.m. suddenly be suitable to look after a traumatized child?
There are also ideas that are never fully explored, like the child's artwork after her accident, her sudden recovery of her speech, the relationship between Quinty and the maid, and so on.
All in all, a very disappointing movie that I don't recommend unless you just like looking at beautiful Italian scenery.

I watched this on reccommendation from a friend.
It was awful.
So predictable.
So ant-climactic.
So mind numbingly dull.
Avoid this film at all costs.