Cold Comfort Farm

Cold Comfort Farm


Starring:Eileen Atkins, Kate Beckinsale, Sheila Burrell, Stephen Fry, Freddie Jones, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, Miriam Margolyes, Rufus Sewell, Ivan Kaye, Jeremy Peters, Maria Miles, Christopher Bowen, Louise Rea, Sophie Revell, Rupert Penry-Jones, Angela Thorne, Tim Myers (III), Harry Ditson, Trevor Baxter
Director: John Schlesinger
Studio: Universal Studios
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
From Academy Award winning director John Schlesinger comes a brilliantly witty film. Starring Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor) as Flora Poste, a London society girl, and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) as Flora's friend and mentor, this heartwarming comedy is full of charm and clever satire. Recently orphaned, Flora ignores the sage advice of Mrs. Smiley (Lumley) and moves to the country to live on a decrepit farm with her eccentric relatives. Fancying herself a writer, Flora encounters perfect material for her novel in the humorously odd collection of rural characters. In her own inimitable way, Flora insists on creating order out of their chaos, and in the process, she fills their lives with light and laughter. Also starring Rufus Sewell (A Knight s Tale), Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings), Stephen Fry (Peter's Friends) and Eileen Atkins.

System Requirements:

  • Starring Joanna Lumley, Kate Beckinsale, Eileen Atkins, Rufus Sewell, Ian McKellen
  • Directed by John Schlesnger
  • Running time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
  • Copyright Universal Studios 2003

    Format: DVD MOVIE
    Amazon.com
    This hilarious spoof on British costume dramas based on great literature stars Kate Beckinsale (Much Ado About Nothing) as a strong-willed, young woman named Miss Flora Poste, who finds herself orphaned and without means in the 1930s. Moving in with some half-savage relatives on a country farm, Flora is hardly daunted by their primitivism (as she might have been in a novel by Thomas Hardy) but instead takes charge and imposes hygiene, order, and good manners on the dirty, superstitious lot. John Schlesinger directs this brisk, infectious adaptation of the 1932 novel by Stella Gibbons. Beckinsale is wonderful, and the rest of the savvy, inspired cast perfectly send up a host of literary clichés. --Tom Keogh
    Cold Comfort Farm
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • not quite the forsyte saga
    • Cold Comfort Farm
    • Dull
    • A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-
    • Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY
    		 Cold Comfort Farm
    Starring: Eileen Atkins , Kate Beckinsale , Sheila Burrell , Stephen Fry , and Freddie Jones
    Director: John Schlesinger
    Manufacturer: Universal Studios
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Eccentric FamiliesEccentric Families | By Theme | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Fish Out of WaterFish Out of Water | By Theme | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Comedy of MannersComedy of Manners | By Theme | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    GeneralGeneral | British | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Domestic ComediesDomestic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Family InteractionFamily Interaction | By Theme | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
    Period PiecePeriod Piece | By Theme | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
    GeneralGeneral | British Cinema | By Country | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
    Atkins, EileenAtkins, Eileen | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Beckinsale, KateBeckinsale, Kate | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Bowen, ChristopherBowen, Christopher | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Burrell, SheilaBurrell, Sheila | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Fry, StephenFry, Stephen | ( F ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Jones, FreddieJones, Freddie | ( J ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Lumley, JoannaLumley, Joanna | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Margolyes, MiriamMargolyes, Miriam | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    McKellen, IanMcKellen, Ian | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Sewell, RufusSewell, Rufus | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Schlesinger, JohnSchlesinger, John | ( S ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
    All Universal Studios TitlesAll Universal Studios Titles | Universal Studios Home Entertainment | Studio Specials | Stores | DVD | Video
    ComedyComedy | Universal Studios Home Entertainment | Studio Specials | Stores | DVD | Video
    DVDs Under $10DVDs Under $10 | Universal Studios Home Entertainment | Studio Specials | Stores | DVD | Video
    GeneralGeneral | British Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    Period DramasPeriod Dramas | British Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    ComedyComedy | By Theme | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    Family InteractionFamily Interaction | By Theme | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    Period PiecePeriod Piece | By Theme | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    DVDs Under $7.49DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
    GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
    ( C )( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
    Similar Items:
    1. Cold Comfort Farm
    2. A Month by the Lake
    3. Middlemarch
    4. My House in Umbria
    5. Widows' Peak

    ASIN: B00009IB1D
    Release Date: 2003-07-01

    Product Description

    From Academy Award winning director John Schlesinger comes a brilliantly witty film. Starring Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor) as Flora Poste, a London society girl, and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) as Flora's friend and mentor, this heartwarming comedy is full of charm and clever satire. Recently orphaned, Flora ignores the sage advice of Mrs. Smiley (Lumley) and moves to the country to live on a decrepit farm with her eccentric relatives. Fancying herself a writer, Flora encounters perfect material for her novel in the humorously odd collection of rural characters. In her own inimitable way, Flora insists on creating order out of their chaos, and in the process, she fills their lives with light and laughter. Also starring Rufus Sewell (A Knight s Tale), Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings), Stephen Fry (Peter's Friends) and Eileen Atkins.

    System Requirements:
  • Starring Joanna Lumley, Kate Beckinsale, Eileen Atkins, Rufus Sewell, Ian McKellen
  • Directed by John Schlesnger
  • Running time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
  • Copyright Universal Studios 2003

    Format: DVD MOVIE

    Amazon.com

    This hilarious spoof on British costume dramas based on great literature stars Kate Beckinsale (Much Ado About Nothing) as a strong-willed, young woman named Miss Flora Poste, who finds herself orphaned and without means in the 1930s. Moving in with some half-savage relatives on a country farm, Flora is hardly daunted by their primitivism (as she might have been in a novel by Thomas Hardy) but instead takes charge and imposes hygiene, order, and good manners on the dirty, superstitious lot. John Schlesinger directs this brisk, infectious adaptation of the 1932 novel by Stella Gibbons. Beckinsale is wonderful, and the rest of the savvy, inspired cast perfectly send up a host of literary clichés. --Tom Keogh

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars not quite the forsyte saga.......2007-06-11

    a change of pace from director john schlesinger, more familiar for dark pieces like "darling" or "sunday bloody sunday", this is one of those off-beat british comedies wherein a supposedly "normal" person (herein kate beckinsale as an impoverished smart set 1930s girl) gets plopped down in the midst of a parochially isolated village replete with quirky characers. while lacking the bite of bill forsyths "local hero", it holds up quite nicely among the genre, and if you enjoy this type of movie, you will enjoy this one.

    5 out of 5 stars Cold Comfort Farm.......2007-05-14

    I loved this film! I had made copy at one time from watching it on the telly, but decided that I needed my very on good copy. I recommend it for any and all who enjoy British sense of humor.

    3 out of 5 stars Dull.......2007-05-11

    Amazon.com recommended that I watch this movie because I like I Capture the Castle. Amazon could not have been more wrong. It was so dull that I didn't even finish the DVD. I hope the book is more ingenious than this.

    5 out of 5 stars A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-.......2007-05-08

    The cast could not have been better! I try to loan this to friends that
    need a few laughs. The relativly quiet start to the plot has a truly good payoff!

    1 out of 5 stars Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY.......2007-05-03

    I looked forward to COLD COMFORT FARM since I love British humor, and I love Joanna Lumley in AB FAB. I also liked Kate Beckinsale in HAUNTED. But this film ... what a disappointment!

    COLD COMFORT FARM has a thin, empty, insubstantial quality. It no doubt imagines itself as witty, in an Oscar Wilde sort of way. Not!

    The humor is best exemplified by the scene wherein the boyfriend tells the heroine that he owns a plane.

    "You own a plane?" she asks. "Whatever for?"

    "I think everyone should own a plane," he jokes.

    "Oh Charles!" she laughs.

    Yeah. Funny stuff. Real witty.

    The "humor" is arbitrary, is based on nothing, and goes nowhere.

    The film tries to build suspense about the dark deed that was done to Robert Post, but we never learn what it was. What's more, by the end of the film, I don't give a damn.

    The heroine "solves" everyone's problems effortlessly, all the pieces falling into place. For instance, she invites a bigshot Hollywood producer for a visit. The producer is conveniently seeking a British farmboy type, yet he can't find one from among the tens of thousands of wannabes in Hollywood. He spots the perfect farmboy (the heroine's friend), who seems asleep when he's "discovered" as though he expected it and doesn't much care.

    Of course, a silly non-plot may suffice for a comedy if it were a funny comedy, which this isn't. No laughs. Not even a polite chuckle. Maybe a half smile. A highly talented cast gone to waste.

    The funniest scenes are when the heroine struggles to write a novel, and she keeps writing about those "golden orbs" (her metaphor for the sun). Ironically, her failed novel is funnier than this film.
    Cold Comfort Farm [Region 2]
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • not quite the forsyte saga
    • Cold Comfort Farm
    • Dull
    • A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-
    • Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY
    		 Cold Comfort Farm [Region 2]
    Starring: Eileen Atkins , Kate Beckinsale , Sheila Burrell , Stephen Fry , and Freddie Jones
    Director: John Schlesinger
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GermanGerman | By Original Language | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
    GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Atkins, EileenAtkins, Eileen | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Beckinsale, KateBeckinsale, Kate | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Bowen, ChristopherBowen, Christopher | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Burrell, SheilaBurrell, Sheila | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Fry, StephenFry, Stephen | ( F ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Jones, FreddieJones, Freddie | ( J ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Lumley, JoannaLumley, Joanna | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Margolyes, MiriamMargolyes, Miriam | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    McKellen, IanMcKellen, Ian | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Sewell, RufusSewell, Rufus | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Schlesinger, JohnSchlesinger, John | ( S ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
    GermanGerman | By Original Language | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    ( C )( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
    Similar Items:
    1. Cold Comfort Farm
    2. A Month by the Lake
    3. Middlemarch
    4. My House in Umbria
    5. Widows' Peak

    ASIN: B000053GXZ

    Amazon.com

    This hilarious spoof on British costume dramas based on great literature stars Kate Beckinsale (Much Ado About Nothing) as a strong-willed, young woman named Miss Flora Poste, who finds herself orphaned and without means in the 1930s. Moving in with some half-savage relatives on a country farm, Flora is hardly daunted by their primitivism (as she might have been in a novel by Thomas Hardy) but instead takes charge and imposes hygiene, order, and good manners on the dirty, superstitious lot. John Schlesinger directs this brisk, infectious adaptation of the 1932 novel by Stella Gibbons. Beckinsale is wonderful, and the rest of the savvy, inspired cast perfectly send up a host of literary clichés. --Tom Keogh

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars not quite the forsyte saga.......2007-06-11

    a change of pace from director john schlesinger, more familiar for dark pieces like "darling" or "sunday bloody sunday", this is one of those off-beat british comedies wherein a supposedly "normal" person (herein kate beckinsale as an impoverished smart set 1930s girl) gets plopped down in the midst of a parochially isolated village replete with quirky characers. while lacking the bite of bill forsyths "local hero", it holds up quite nicely among the genre, and if you enjoy this type of movie, you will enjoy this one.

    5 out of 5 stars Cold Comfort Farm.......2007-05-14

    I loved this film! I had made copy at one time from watching it on the telly, but decided that I needed my very on good copy. I recommend it for any and all who enjoy British sense of humor.

    3 out of 5 stars Dull.......2007-05-11

    Amazon.com recommended that I watch this movie because I like I Capture the Castle. Amazon could not have been more wrong. It was so dull that I didn't even finish the DVD. I hope the book is more ingenious than this.

    5 out of 5 stars A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-.......2007-05-08

    The cast could not have been better! I try to loan this to friends that
    need a few laughs. The relativly quiet start to the plot has a truly good payoff!

    1 out of 5 stars Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY.......2007-05-03

    I looked forward to COLD COMFORT FARM since I love British humor, and I love Joanna Lumley in AB FAB. I also liked Kate Beckinsale in HAUNTED. But this film ... what a disappointment!

    COLD COMFORT FARM has a thin, empty, insubstantial quality. It no doubt imagines itself as witty, in an Oscar Wilde sort of way. Not!

    The humor is best exemplified by the scene wherein the boyfriend tells the heroine that he owns a plane.

    "You own a plane?" she asks. "Whatever for?"

    "I think everyone should own a plane," he jokes.

    "Oh Charles!" she laughs.

    Yeah. Funny stuff. Real witty.

    The "humor" is arbitrary, is based on nothing, and goes nowhere.

    The film tries to build suspense about the dark deed that was done to Robert Post, but we never learn what it was. What's more, by the end of the film, I don't give a damn.

    The heroine "solves" everyone's problems effortlessly, all the pieces falling into place. For instance, she invites a bigshot Hollywood producer for a visit. The producer is conveniently seeking a British farmboy type, yet he can't find one from among the tens of thousands of wannabes in Hollywood. He spots the perfect farmboy (the heroine's friend), who seems asleep when he's "discovered" as though he expected it and doesn't much care.

    Of course, a silly non-plot may suffice for a comedy if it were a funny comedy, which this isn't. No laughs. Not even a polite chuckle. Maybe a half smile. A highly talented cast gone to waste.

    The funniest scenes are when the heroine struggles to write a novel, and she keeps writing about those "golden orbs" (her metaphor for the sun). Ironically, her failed novel is funnier than this film.
    Cold Comfort Farm [Region 2]
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • not quite the forsyte saga
    • Cold Comfort Farm
    • Dull
    • A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-
    • Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY
    		 Cold Comfort Farm [Region 2]
    Starring: Eileen Atkins , Kate Beckinsale , Sheila Burrell , Stephen Fry , and Freddie Jones
    Director: John Schlesinger
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GermanGerman | By Original Language | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
    GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Atkins, EileenAtkins, Eileen | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Beckinsale, KateBeckinsale, Kate | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Bowen, ChristopherBowen, Christopher | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Burrell, SheilaBurrell, Sheila | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Fry, StephenFry, Stephen | ( F ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Jones, FreddieJones, Freddie | ( J ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Lumley, JoannaLumley, Joanna | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Margolyes, MiriamMargolyes, Miriam | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    McKellen, IanMcKellen, Ian | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Sewell, RufusSewell, Rufus | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Schlesinger, JohnSchlesinger, John | ( S ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
    GermanGerman | By Original Language | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    ( C )( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
    Similar Items:
    1. Cold Comfort Farm
    2. A Month by the Lake
    3. Middlemarch
    4. My House in Umbria
    5. Widows' Peak

    ASIN: B00004RYP2

    Amazon.com

    This hilarious spoof on British costume dramas based on great literature stars Kate Beckinsale (Much Ado About Nothing) as a strong-willed, young woman named Miss Flora Poste, who finds herself orphaned and without means in the 1930s. Moving in with some half-savage relatives on a country farm, Flora is hardly daunted by their primitivism (as she might have been in a novel by Thomas Hardy) but instead takes charge and imposes hygiene, order, and good manners on the dirty, superstitious lot. John Schlesinger directs this brisk, infectious adaptation of the 1932 novel by Stella Gibbons. Beckinsale is wonderful, and the rest of the savvy, inspired cast perfectly send up a host of literary clichés. --Tom Keogh

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars not quite the forsyte saga.......2007-06-11

    a change of pace from director john schlesinger, more familiar for dark pieces like "darling" or "sunday bloody sunday", this is one of those off-beat british comedies wherein a supposedly "normal" person (herein kate beckinsale as an impoverished smart set 1930s girl) gets plopped down in the midst of a parochially isolated village replete with quirky characers. while lacking the bite of bill forsyths "local hero", it holds up quite nicely among the genre, and if you enjoy this type of movie, you will enjoy this one.

    5 out of 5 stars Cold Comfort Farm.......2007-05-14

    I loved this film! I had made copy at one time from watching it on the telly, but decided that I needed my very on good copy. I recommend it for any and all who enjoy British sense of humor.

    3 out of 5 stars Dull.......2007-05-11

    Amazon.com recommended that I watch this movie because I like I Capture the Castle. Amazon could not have been more wrong. It was so dull that I didn't even finish the DVD. I hope the book is more ingenious than this.

    5 out of 5 stars A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-.......2007-05-08

    The cast could not have been better! I try to loan this to friends that
    need a few laughs. The relativly quiet start to the plot has a truly good payoff!

    1 out of 5 stars Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY.......2007-05-03

    I looked forward to COLD COMFORT FARM since I love British humor, and I love Joanna Lumley in AB FAB. I also liked Kate Beckinsale in HAUNTED. But this film ... what a disappointment!

    COLD COMFORT FARM has a thin, empty, insubstantial quality. It no doubt imagines itself as witty, in an Oscar Wilde sort of way. Not!

    The humor is best exemplified by the scene wherein the boyfriend tells the heroine that he owns a plane.

    "You own a plane?" she asks. "Whatever for?"

    "I think everyone should own a plane," he jokes.

    "Oh Charles!" she laughs.

    Yeah. Funny stuff. Real witty.

    The "humor" is arbitrary, is based on nothing, and goes nowhere.

    The film tries to build suspense about the dark deed that was done to Robert Post, but we never learn what it was. What's more, by the end of the film, I don't give a damn.

    The heroine "solves" everyone's problems effortlessly, all the pieces falling into place. For instance, she invites a bigshot Hollywood producer for a visit. The producer is conveniently seeking a British farmboy type, yet he can't find one from among the tens of thousands of wannabes in Hollywood. He spots the perfect farmboy (the heroine's friend), who seems asleep when he's "discovered" as though he expected it and doesn't much care.

    Of course, a silly non-plot may suffice for a comedy if it were a funny comedy, which this isn't. No laughs. Not even a polite chuckle. Maybe a half smile. A highly talented cast gone to waste.

    The funniest scenes are when the heroine struggles to write a novel, and she keeps writing about those "golden orbs" (her metaphor for the sun). Ironically, her failed novel is funnier than this film.
    Cold Comfort Farm [Region 2]
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • not quite the forsyte saga
    • Cold Comfort Farm
    • Dull
    • A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-
    • Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY
    		 Cold Comfort Farm [Region 2]
    Starring: Eileen Atkins , Kate Beckinsale , Sheila Burrell , Stephen Fry , and Freddie Jones
    Director: John Schlesinger
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Atkins, EileenAtkins, Eileen | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Beckinsale, KateBeckinsale, Kate | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Bowen, ChristopherBowen, Christopher | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Burrell, SheilaBurrell, Sheila | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Fry, StephenFry, Stephen | ( F ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Jones, FreddieJones, Freddie | ( J ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Lumley, JoannaLumley, Joanna | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Margolyes, MiriamMargolyes, Miriam | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    McKellen, IanMcKellen, Ian | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Sewell, RufusSewell, Rufus | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Schlesinger, JohnSchlesinger, John | ( S ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
    ( C )( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
    Similar Items:
    1. Cold Comfort Farm
    2. A Month by the Lake
    3. Middlemarch
    4. My House in Umbria
    5. Widows' Peak

    ASIN: B00004W0UN

    Amazon.com

    This hilarious spoof on British costume dramas based on great literature stars Kate Beckinsale (Much Ado About Nothing) as a strong-willed, young woman named Miss Flora Poste, who finds herself orphaned and without means in the 1930s. Moving in with some half-savage relatives on a country farm, Flora is hardly daunted by their primitivism (as she might have been in a novel by Thomas Hardy) but instead takes charge and imposes hygiene, order, and good manners on the dirty, superstitious lot. John Schlesinger directs this brisk, infectious adaptation of the 1932 novel by Stella Gibbons. Beckinsale is wonderful, and the rest of the savvy, inspired cast perfectly send up a host of literary clichés. --Tom Keogh

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars not quite the forsyte saga.......2007-06-11

    a change of pace from director john schlesinger, more familiar for dark pieces like "darling" or "sunday bloody sunday", this is one of those off-beat british comedies wherein a supposedly "normal" person (herein kate beckinsale as an impoverished smart set 1930s girl) gets plopped down in the midst of a parochially isolated village replete with quirky characers. while lacking the bite of bill forsyths "local hero", it holds up quite nicely among the genre, and if you enjoy this type of movie, you will enjoy this one.

    5 out of 5 stars Cold Comfort Farm.......2007-05-14

    I loved this film! I had made copy at one time from watching it on the telly, but decided that I needed my very on good copy. I recommend it for any and all who enjoy British sense of humor.

    3 out of 5 stars Dull.......2007-05-11

    Amazon.com recommended that I watch this movie because I like I Capture the Castle. Amazon could not have been more wrong. It was so dull that I didn't even finish the DVD. I hope the book is more ingenious than this.

    5 out of 5 stars A wonderful, quirky comedy that holds up to many viewings-.......2007-05-08

    The cast could not have been better! I try to loan this to friends that
    need a few laughs. The relativly quiet start to the plot has a truly good payoff!

    1 out of 5 stars Sorry if my review isn't "helpful" (i.e., you don't agree with it) -- but this film is NOT FUNNY.......2007-05-03

    I looked forward to COLD COMFORT FARM since I love British humor, and I love Joanna Lumley in AB FAB. I also liked Kate Beckinsale in HAUNTED. But this film ... what a disappointment!

    COLD COMFORT FARM has a thin, empty, insubstantial quality. It no doubt imagines itself as witty, in an Oscar Wilde sort of way. Not!

    The humor is best exemplified by the scene wherein the boyfriend tells the heroine that he owns a plane.

    "You own a plane?" she asks. "Whatever for?"

    "I think everyone should own a plane," he jokes.

    "Oh Charles!" she laughs.

    Yeah. Funny stuff. Real witty.

    The "humor" is arbitrary, is based on nothing, and goes nowhere.

    The film tries to build suspense about the dark deed that was done to Robert Post, but we never learn what it was. What's more, by the end of the film, I don't give a damn.

    The heroine "solves" everyone's problems effortlessly, all the pieces falling into place. For instance, she invites a bigshot Hollywood producer for a visit. The producer is conveniently seeking a British farmboy type, yet he can't find one from among the tens of thousands of wannabes in Hollywood. He spots the perfect farmboy (the heroine's friend), who seems asleep when he's "discovered" as though he expected it and doesn't much care.

    Of course, a silly non-plot may suffice for a comedy if it were a funny comedy, which this isn't. No laughs. Not even a polite chuckle. Maybe a half smile. A highly talented cast gone to waste.

    The funniest scenes are when the heroine struggles to write a novel, and she keeps writing about those "golden orbs" (her metaphor for the sun). Ironically, her failed novel is funnier than this film.

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    1. The Celebration
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    5. Strangers in Good Company
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