Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Kirpianuscus a film about friendship. in a special form. about books. about different manner to see the life. and about special refuges against every day pressure. it is not easy to define its source of seduction. the script, the acting, the chain of titles, the letters,her enthusiasm, his polite answers, the flavor of two different places and cultures and personalities. it is seductive, fascinating and touching. and useful for the birth of special emotions. romantic and smart and delicate and precise. best choice for admirers of a cinema of substance and redefine of life basic purpose. for the lovers of old books. and for the fans of great acting. Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. and sure, in a small role, admirable Helen Mirren. the memory of this film remains long time. with real useful result.

gavin6942 True story of a transatlantic business correspondence about used books that developed into a close friendship.Roger Ebert somewhat humorously wrote, "Miss Fiske was the librarian at the Urbana Free Library when I was growing up. She never had to talk to me about the love of books because she simply exuded it and I absorbed it. She would have loved this movie. Sitting next to her, I suspect, I would have loved it, too. But Miss Fiske is gone now, and I found it pretty slow-going on my own." That Ebert was a funny guy. As he notes elsewhere in his review, this movie is built on a very thin premise. And that is its ultimate downfall. While the movie is fun to watch, it has so little going on: basically two people corresponding about books to order. It's nice for a book lover like myself, but it did begin to wear after a while.

GusF Based on the 1981 play by James Roose-Evans which was itself based on the 1970 memoir by Helene Hanff, this is a superb tale of the friendship that arose out of a mutual love of books. The film concerns the almost 20 year correspondence between Hanff, a New York-based lover of English literature, and the staff of the antiquarian bookshop Marks & Co. in London, in particular its chief buyer Frank Doel. Although it began as a purely professional arrangement, the correspondence eventually blossomed into a very close friendship between Hanff and Doel, even though they never actually met in person. Hanff also enjoyed long distance friendships with the rest of the staff but none of them were on the same level as that which she shared with Doel. The film does not have a plot per se, being primarily concerned with its characters and the small details of their lives as opposed to the major events thereof. In order for such films to work, the writing has to be very sharp and, perhaps even more importantly, the characters in question have to compelling and/or sympathetic. To that end, I am glad to say that I found this film to be fascinating, engrossing and at times very moving. It has a perfect script by Hugh Whitemore who, by relying on the source material, was able to paint a vivid and authentic portrait of the two central characters. The film is very well directed by the prolific theatre director David Jones, who is able to very effectively contrast the various locales of London and New York. In this sense, the direction goes hand in hand with the script, which nice explores the difference between British and American cultures.The film stars Anne Bancroft in a wonderful performance as Hanff, an initially fairly impoverished script reader living in a small apartment in Manhattan who is attempting to further her education through the acquisition of out of print editions of British classics as well as more obscure books. One that sparked my interest in particular was The Idea of a University by Cardinal John Henry Newman. Cardinal Newman founded the Catholic University of Ireland, the predecessor of my alma mater University College Dublin. Hanff is equipped with an occasionally caustic wit but she is a lovely person who cares about others deeply. She has a tendency to tease the staff at Marks & Co. when they are not very prompt in fulfilling one of their orders but she regularly sends them gift packages of items such as meat and eggs, which were still rationed in Britain when the correspondence began in 1949, in gratitude for all of their efforts. It is a very kind gesture that goes above and beyond the call of duty. Hanff eventually gets a job as a scriptwriter for "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" and receives a salary of $200 per episode, which is increased to $250 after a while. She had intended to use this money to travel to London for the Queen's coronation in 1953 but the fact that she requires extensive and expensive dental work put paid to that idea. She finally makes it to London in 1971, by which time Marks & Co. has closed down.Bancroft's "Young Winston" and "The Elephant Man" co-star Anthony Hopkins is excellent as Doel, who grows equally fond of Hanff over the course of two decades. Taking them at face value, they would seem to have little in common as he is a somewhat shy, naturally quiet and reserved man whereas she is a live-wire. Their friendship grows out of their shared love of books but it is not confined to that as their letters cover a wide variety of topics from Yorkshire Pudding to his love for Tottenham Hotspur and hers for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He becomes more open in his writing and does not hesitate to tell about his wife Nora and their daughters Sheila and Mary. Over time, they become best friends and each is perhaps the greatest friend that the other ever had. When Doel finds out that she is not coming over in 1953, he is quietly devastated as he had longed to meet her. In January 1969, Hanff discovers that Doel, whom she nicknamed "Frankie," died of peritonitis the previous month and she breaks down crying in a beautiful scene. It is clear that not travelling to London and beginning a more conventional friendship is one of her biggest regrets, not least because she previously told him that she thought that he understood her better than anyone else. It is a tribute to the great skill of both Bancroft and Hopkins that the evolution of Hanff and Doel's friendship is presented in an entirely believable manner. There is a great chemistry between them even though they never appear together on screen.The film has a small but strong supporting cast. Judi Dench does not have a big role but she is nevertheless excellent as Nora, who becomes friends with Hanff herself but admits after her husband's death that she was occasionally jealous of their close friendship. This is best illustrated in a tense dinner scene in which Doel avoids making eye contact with her Nora, who looks at him somewhat bitterly. In spite of this, however, she is never depicted as being an unsympathetic character and there is an clear but understated sense of love and affection between the couple. The nature of the film means that no one other than Bancroft, Hopkins and, to a lesser extent, Dench has a chance to shine but I also impressed by Maurice Denham (in one of his final film roles), Mercedes Ruehl, Ian McNeice and Eleanor David.Overall, this is a marvellous film which is able to communicate the joy of reading far more effectively than I would have thought possible through this medium.

screenman For me, this is the kind of movie that starts out as a curiosity, becomes familiar and finishes being loved. My relationship with it is very much like that of the characters depicted.It's simple enough; a feisty but struggling all-American New York single-woman discovers a British Bookshop in London that has the kinds of books otherwise unavailable in her home city. She begins a series of purchases by mail-order and an intimate if platonic relationship develops between herself and its staff.That doesn't sound very promising. There's no action. Nobody is murdered, there are no reckless car-chases, not a hint of pyrotechnics. Moreover; there is no great spectacle either, no sweeping wide-angle pans. Almost the entire story is contained within a stuffy Charing Cross Road bookshop and the scarcely less stuffy apartment of the American customer, with brief sorties into the stuffy homes and lives of the other characters.Nevertheless; this movie has STORY in spades. We get to explore the microcosm of the characters' private lives, and the result is a spellbinding experience.Ann Bancroft is perfectly cast as the demanding, emancipated New Yorker who won't take 'no' for an answer when it comes to having the books of her dreams. Anthony Hopkins plays the shop manager with the sort of undemonstrative reserve that has become his hallmark when not eating people. These two lead a cast of nicely chosen and believable individuals - including Dame Judi Dench - who fill-out the fabric of their story. A great deal of the dialogue is composed of narrative, being the two leads effectively reading out their letters to each other. It's a great ploy, because by their means the story can be slowed or advanced in any way which might suit the circumstances.The movie takes us on a developing relationship that lasts for years, predating WW2, and then ever onwards. Times change, fortunes flourish and decline; people come and go. Some die. It's a bitter-sweet slice of life, of how we accomplish what we can, but seldom realise our dreams and must surrender to - yet be reconciled with - the unremitting passage of time.This is a great movie about human life on a human scale. Simple, hopeful, but ultimately in vain, it's all of our lives in the end. Collectible and highly recommended.