Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 11-January-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Cold Comfort Farm (1996)

I stand corrected. A few months back I said that Underworld marked the first time that Kate Beckinsale was appealing in a film, but it turns out she was quite smashing in the British comedy Cold Comfort Farm, which helped send her on the road to semi-stardom. Playing a more sophisticated precursor to Amelie, Beckinsale headlines an impressive cast in a story about a smart, meddlesome city gal who moves to the country circa 1930 and transforms the lives of her eccentric kin.

Beckinsale's character, Flora Poste, is a young flapper and aspiring writer who decides to live with relatives after the death of her parents. Her criteria for choosing a new home are (1) that it provide material for a forthcoming novel, and (2) that it allow her to indulge a fondness for tidying things, i.e., arranging the world according to her tastes. She finds a doozy of an opportunity at Cold Comfort Farm, a shabby, gloomy homestead populated by a host of distant cousins and ruled with an iron fist by a crazy matriarch named Ada Doom (Sheila Burrell). With undaunted persistence and good humor, Flora sets about making domestic improvements (having the curtains washed, introducing afternoon tea) and herding her relatives into their proper spheres of life. Though initially met with resistance, she succeeds in opening the eyes and world views of Amos Starkadder, a self-ordained brimstone-and-hellfire preacher (Ian McKellen), his practical son Reuben (Ivan Kaye), his randy son Seth (Rufus Sewell), and their bohemian cousin Elfine (Maria Miles), while generally shaking things up for Amos' wife Judith (Eileen Atkins) and all the other members of the household. Flora's progress is closely tracked (and at times aided) by her urbane friends in London, including hopeful suitor Charles (Christopher Bowen) and the blasé Mary Smiling (Joanna Lumley).

Cold Comfort Farm is a bit of a departure for the late John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy). Not counting a couple of awkward red herrings, it consists of nothing more than light, easy satire and the occasional belly laugh (often provided by Stephen Fry as a ridiculous boor who pursues Flora through the countryside). The script delights in naming each character as a spoof of a standard type from literature or general social observation: the self-assured modern belle, the simple farm boy, the hot macho rustic, the religious zealot, the neurotic, the ingenue, the mysterious fount of family shame who resides in the top room of the house, et al. The mix of these inherently silly folk makes for amusing entertainment, especially since the actors go after their roles with relish and appear to be having a jolly good time. The script (which is based on a book by Stella Gibbons) doesn't know what to do with its heroine once her work is done, so it abruptly sends her off into the sunset with a breathless sigh indicative of future happiness ("Oh, you do have heavenly teeth!"). But I like to think that Flora does live happily ever after, because — bless her matchmaking, D. H. Lawrence-worshipping, Vogue-emulating heart — she really did earn it.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.