COLD COMFORT FARM
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Thomas Hardy meets P. G. Wodehouse.
This BBC/Thames TV co-production is a remake
production of Stella Gibbon's 1932 novel lampooning
the Gothic rural novels. In the 1930s a modern
young woman goes to live with relatives on a bleak
farm with deep, dark secrets. Rather than being
pulled into the melodrama, she pulls her relatives
out of it. This is really a one-joke film, but the
production values are high, the style light, and
the pace is rapid. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4)
With the death of her father, the thoroughly-modern Flora Poste (played by Kate Beckinsale) must find some other relatives off of whom to live. Little knowing what she is letting herself in for she chooses to live with her Aunt's family at dark and mordant Cold Comfort Farm. She hopes to collect enough experience to write a novel. The farm is a queer and moody, dirty place with many a dark secret left too long to fester. And as the smoky vortex of black emotion reaches out to engulf the poor, innocent Flora, with a knowing smile she effortlessly stamps it flat. The plot, based on the 1932 novel by Stella Gibbons, is basically one elaborate joke. It says that all the Gothic evil as described in the old potboilers is no match for the spunk and pluck of a modern woman. Nevertheless, though it is obvious early that that is where the film is headed, it does tell its particular joke with a great deal of style and wit. The film is a co-production of the BBC and Thames television, a remake of the BBC's memorable 1971 production which starred a terrific Alastair Sim as Amos Starkadder, the apparent master of Cold Comfort Farm and self-styled hellfire preacher of the local sect of "Quiverers." In this version no less an actor than Ian McKellen takes the role, but sadly falls considerably short of (at least my memories of) the original performance. The real head of the Starkadder household, however, is Flora's Aunt Ada (Sheila Burrell) who stays hidden, never leaving her room, as she broods endlessly about an incident in her youth when she saw "something nasty in the woodshed." That incident and the effect it had on the Starkadder family hangs over the entire film. There is clearly a collision course shared by this iron matriarch of the household, determined to maintain her power, letting nothing change and her young niece Flora determined to set the household right, at least right by her own definition.
This is a somewhat surprising film to come from John Schlesinger, best known for directing thrillers like MARATHON MAN, THE BELIEVERS, and PACIFIC HEIGHTS. Here he has great fun poking holes in the melodrama created by writers like the Brontes and Thomas Hardy and even by his own film, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD. On the other hand, his high society London scenes smack a little more of the elegant vacuity of the upper crust in P. G. Wodehouse's stories. Notable also in the cast are Eileen Atkins as Ada's perpetually fretful daughter Judith and Rufus Sewell as her handsome and overly-lusty son Seth Starkadder. Even on the wide screen, this film has the look and feel of a television production and it has it even more so for having already been produced by the BBC once before. Nevertheless, it feels like a quality TV production and Schlesinger manages a wry wit throughout. American audiences may have some trouble understanding the thick British accent in which most of the dialog is spoken. I give it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
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