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Plot Summary
From Academy Award winning director John Schlesinger comes a brilliantly witty film. Starring Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor) as Flora Poste, a London society girl, and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) as Flora's friend and mentor, this heartwarming comedy is full of charm and clever satire. Recently orphaned, Flora ignores the sage advice of Mrs. Smiley (Lumley) and moves to the country to live on a decrepit farm with her eccentric relatives. Fancying herself a writer, Flora encounters perfect material for her novel in the humorously odd collection of rural characters. In her own inimitable way, Flora insists on creating order out of their chaos, and in the process, she fills their lives with light and laughter. Also starring Rufus Sewell (A Knight's Tale), Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings), Stephen Fry (Peter's Friends) and Eileen Atkins.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
85%- Reviews Counted: 33
- Fresh: 28
- Rotten: 5
- Average Rating: 7.6/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: Dickens meets the Beverly Hillbillies.
Fresh: Schelsinger's masterfully directed eccentric satire is based on Stella Gibbons' 1933 book which spoofs the serious, soul-searching, rural-set stories of writers like D.H. Lawrence and Mary Webb.
Customer Reviews
There ain't no butter in HELL!!
Oh wow ... how to describe this movie. It's a brilliant farce of the navelgazing novels of Austen and her ilk. For every last poor sod forced to sit through "Emma" for the 18th time, this is a nice remedy.
The whole idea of the quiet estate in rural England bringing solutions to every last one of life's problems is thrown out the window at Cold Comfort Farm where the patriarch is an itinerant preacher known for his hellfire and damnation readings, the matriarch is a doddering old woman holed up in her room, the eldest son is spineless, the daughter is a living farce of Forster skipping and prancing in the forests as a nymph, and the attractive younger son is an oversexed idiot.
I just cannot recommend this film highly enough. It's brilliant! I laugh at every last moment as they replay themselves even now in my mind - but nothing on this earth will ever...EVER equal Ian Mckellan's sermon on the pain of hellfire and the fact that there will be NO BUTTER IN HELL! I almost want to take up the calling myself just to say that to a congregation.
So yeah, in short - GET THIS MOVIE.
Have A Good Laugh!
At our family gathering we often quote lines from movies when trying to get our point across. Let me tell you I have had many occations to use the old lady''s one constant line. I won't spoil it and say so you have to see. This movie is a Hoot! Rent "Widows Peak" along with this one and have yourself a good evening.
There is no butter in hell!
Title of my review says it all. My aunt and I LOVE this movie!
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