Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 22-January-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium

84 Charing Cross Road (1986)

If you're anything like Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft), the winsome and somewhat eccentric heroine of "84 Charing Cross Road," you spurn fiction for accounts of what real people have really known. In such a case — especially if you love books, words, and similar delights — this might be the movie for you.

"84 Charing Cross Road" reenacts Hanff's 1970 memoir of the same name. In 1949, she was a struggling New York writer whose passion for out-of-print literature led her to solicit the services of a London bookseller, Marks & Co. Her requests were handled by an associate named Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins), a retiring man who implicitly understood and respected her tastes and financial limitations. While very different in background and temperament, he also appreciated her blunt voice and sense of humor. What began as a business correspondence blossomed into a long-distance friendship which lasted 20 years and came to embrace Doel's coworkers and family (including his devoted wife, played by Judi Dench). In all that time, although she dreamed of vacationing abroad, Hanff never met Doel face-to-face, so their dialogue in the movie consists (almost) entirely of the reading of letters.

Many of the themes surrounding the pen pals are familiar, but "84 Charing Cross Road" has a freshness born of simplicity and affection. The most obvious motif is the pairing of disparate souls: the outspoken, Jewish American woman and the quiet, proper British man with an ocean securely between them. (The contrast between the old and new worlds is echoed in the passage of time, which finds Hanff breaking into television while Doel's occupation grows obsolete.) That they never become romantically involved adds to the sweetness of the tale, in addition to being honest; their connection is based on a shared joy in life's little pleasures. The movie partakes of this joy with images of leather-bound tomes, solid old buildings, and brown paper packages tied up with string, not to mention the delicacies Hanff ships to Marks & Co. during the days of London's food rations. The overall impression is that seemingly small aspects of our lives can enrich them disproportionally. Hanff's relationship with Doel doesn't engage her extensively over 20 years, but it consistently helps her to combat an essential loneliness. Camaraderie and kindness matter, as do hand-embroidered linen and a great Elizabethan love poem.

I have one quibble with the film, which is that the actors occasionally address the camera to create an illusion of immediate dialogue. This, unlike the rest of the picture, is hokey and in one instance breaches the defining constraints of the principals' friendship. However, it cannot detract from the strengths of "84 Charing Cross Road," a touching and observant slice of life.

Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.