At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)AT HOME WITH BEATRIX POTTER is a delight to the eye and the spirit for those who love this children's author and her "little books." It is written by Susan Denyer of Britain's National Trust. (Potter's property was left to the National Trust.) The focus of the book is Hilltop Farm, the first farm Beatrix Potter acquired. Although she lived across the road in Castle Cottage, Potter often used Hilltop for its library, guestroom, and workplaces. She also used it to display her "treasures." This book reveals her love of nature, the English Lake District, and of old things--carved dressers, chests, spinning wheels are a few of the "gems" portrayed. Two-page color spreads convey the beauty of the Lake Area, where Potter became a major landowner, sheepfarmer, and a happily married woman. It is wonderful to see the original places, buildings, and objects that she incorporated into her books (examples are shown side by side). The book's layout, photographs, and design are first-rate. Reading this book reminded me of THE PRIVATE WORLD OF TASHA TUDOR and its wonderful photographs by Richard Brown. Like Tudor, Potter drew what she knew and preferred country to city life. (Tudor also was a working farmer in New Hampshire.) Finally, this book presents information about Beatrix Potter and the things and people she loved in an informative and respectful way. This book is not a biography, and Denyer avoids the biographer's temptation to "sum up" or "explain" Beatrix Potter. Rather, we draw our own conclusions after being exposed to the things Potter loved. The select bibliography at the book's end provides a list of works on and by Potter (her journals and letters have been published) that is very helpful to those who want to know more about this author. This is a book to treasure.

Click Here to see more reviews about: At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit

Click here for more information about At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit

Read More...

Driving Lessons (2006) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)DRIVING LESSONS is a little film that sneaks up on you. What at first seems to be a bit of fluffy nonsense comedy British style is at its base a very fine story about coming of age and the needs for significant friendship of both the young and the elderly. Writer Jeremy Brock ('Mrs. Brown', 'Charlotte Gray', 'The Last King of Scotland') here directs his own screenplay and the result is a cohesive, progressively involving tale filled with fascinating and diverse characters, each performed by sterling actors.
Ben Marshall (Rupert Grint, standing firmly on his own as a developing actor post 'Harry Potter' series) is a quiet, plain little poetic seventeen-year-old living with his bird watching Vicar father (Nicholas Farrell) and his obsessive compulsive, rigid, evangelical do-gooder mother (Laura Linney) in a home where 'needy people', such as the murderous cross-dressing Mr. Fincham (Jim Norton), take precedence over family matters: the mother is by the way having an affair with priest Peter (Oliver Milburn), using Ben as her cover!
Sad Ben is among other things attempting to learn to drive a car. His mother is a poor teacher and decides he needs professional lessons AND needs to get a job to help pay for poor Mr. Fincham's needs. Ben follows an ad and meets Dame Eve Walton (Julie Walters), an elderly has-been actress who is as zany as any character ever created. She hires Ben and the fireworks begin. Through a series of incidents, including a camping trip Evie demands they take, the two learn life's lessons missing from each other's natures: Ben learns self respect and self confidence and Evie finds a true friend who will allow her to drop her stagy facade and be the dear human being she has been hiding.
Julie Walters, always offering the finest skills of acting in every character she creates, finds a role like no other here: she is outlandishly wild and lovable. Rupert Grint is exactly the right choice for the challenged coming of age Ben. The chemistry between the two is as tender as that in the classic film 'Harold and Maude'. Laura Linney is as always a superb actress playing a role quite different from her usual repertoire. And the supporting cast is a panorama of fine characterizations. This film is a delightful surprise and one sure to warm the heart and entertain those who love fine writing and direction and acting - and message! Grady Harp, July 07


Click Here to see more reviews about: Driving Lessons (2006)

Oscar® nominee Laura Linney (Kinsey) stars as Laura Marshall, an overzealous, evangelical Christian do-gooder who fills her home with down-and-out boarders, including a senile, cross-dressing murderous mute. Desperate to expand his horizons, Laura's shy teenage son Ben (Rupert Grint, of Harry Potter fame) lands a job tending to self-proclaimed "Dame" Evie Walton (Oscar® nominee Julie Walters, Billy Elliot), an over-the-hill actress with the mouth of a drunken sailer and an insatiable lust for life. The battle for Ben's soul begins as Evie shanghais Ben away from his repressive roots and takes him on an adventure that transforms him from boy to man. A winning entry at the 2006 Moscow International Film Festival, Driving Lessons is an experience Stephen Farber of Movieline calls "a delightful coming-of-age story."

Get 66% OFF

Click here for more information about Driving Lessons (2006)

Read More...