This Beautiful Fantastic (2017)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

There is something quite magical about this film. Although it is slow moving, it is full of heart & charm. The plot is simply a means to unfold the depth of the characters. Bella Brown lives a predictable life. She eats the same thing at the same time every day, wears the same clothes & makes sure she sticks to her schedule. She dreams of becoming a writer, but has yet to write a single book. However, her life quickly becomes uprooted by her stubborn, elderly neighbor. Bella begins a journey of self-discovery that is a joy to behold.There are few films that can tranform the mundane into a beautiful, charming tale of what it truly means to live. If you only enjoy action-packed films, this may not be the movie for you. However, if you can appreciate the small things & enjoy subtle films that focus on character development, this is the film for you. It is well worth the watch (or multiple watches in my case).

It's a little difficult to put this into a sure fit category as it straddles several; Quaint, Fable, Romance, Quirky, Character study, I guess it's all of these. Is it predictable? Yes, is it manipulative? Yes, is it coy? Yes, is it delightful? Yes - but it also has a touch of underlying mystique, the kind of mystique that challenges us to sometimes enter relationships with unlikely people. Some of these characters and situations resemble plots by Roald Dahl (or inspired by) but others come across as lifted from everyday life. The strangeness might put some off but will attract others. Director/writer Simon Aboud has taken a chance with his approach but, overall he creates an easy watch - as long as you're prepared to flow along with it. The cast all fit their roles like well-tailored gloves. Jessica Brown Findlay as Bella, an orphan (odd circumstances to be sure) trying to find her way in a challenging world while working as a library assistant & attempting to write a children's book. The three men in her life played by Tom Wilkinson, Andrew Scott and Jeremy Irvine all bring their unique influences and challenges with genuine style. While gardening plays a key role you don't need to know or love flowers to fully engage with this generally feel good slice-of-life-mildly-comic-drama. Visuals are first class and a neat music score helps it all roll along.

"This Beautiful Fantastic" (honestly a pretty bad title sadly) is a British/American co-production that premiered last year (2016) and is the most recent work by writer and director Simon Aboud. For him, it is the second full feature film and this one here has all the possibilities to become more famous than his first work starring Timothy Spall btw. He also worked on several short films, for example a Paul McCartney music video. Anyway, back to this one here. The lead actress is Jessica Brown Findlay and it is a bit of a breakthrough performance. First of all, she is amazingly gorgeous in my opinion, a mix of Scarlett Johansson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead with an ounce of Gemma Arterton. People who still say today that British girls are not attractive really need to take a look at her. I see she was also in Downton Abbey, but I never really liked that show, so no further comment there. As for this film here, I think she also shows she is a good actress, even if the role eventually does not have as much to offer as it initially seems. But she does a good job with the OCD parts for example. The rest of the cast also includes some well-known names. Jeremy Irvine has been in some known films already and Andrew Scott is known to many too, mostly for appearing in the (horribly overrated) Sherlock series. But he is good there and I also liked him in this 100-minute movie here. Actually, I wanted him to get the girl eventually, but oh well I guess it's fine what they did as friendship is a nice option too. I just found him more likable somehow than the actual love interest.And then there is also 2-time Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson, who was probably the very best thing about the film, which also shows that he is part of the most emotional moment at the very end and I found it pretty sad, even if it was not entirely unexpected with his earlier comment during a phone conversation. I read people compare this film to Amélie on some occasions, but I am not sure I would agree. Yes there is a moment here and there where the tone and atmosphere was similar, but as a whole I see almost no parallels apart from the central female character. I would also say it is slightly worse, but has its own strengths nonetheless and the film shines for entirely different reasons than Amélie. Oh yeah and ducks are amazing, no doubt about it. All in all, I believe this was a pretty good watch, sometimes even great thanks to Wilkinson, that I would not count anywhere near my very best of the year, but a fairly convincing film from start to finish that had me curious about what would happen next to the characters. Maybe my preference for Scott's character also had to do with me liking the actor as the eventual love interest is also a likable character without a doubt, especially with the final revelation that was as simple as making sense. It was good because if he really had cheated on her and the explanation of her seeing him with another chick would have been slightly weird with how she reacted, even if this also had to do with her illness. Anyway, it's still good the film did not focus on the illness entirely, but just as part of the side action. Finally, I want to finish my review with a little reference to a scene that showed everybody how much the relationship was helping her. This would be a scene with the door that she obsessively closes early on, but when she is off to see her sweetheart, then she just lets it open and forgets about the disorder completely. That's all from me now. Go see this film if you get a chance too. You will not be disappointed.

I am really glad, that two of my fellow commentators brought it down to the point: this a bland movie. A very strange and unsuccessful try of a kind of "Amelie"-movie, that doesn't work at all. There is not a single surprise in the plot. You can see every turn five minutes before they happen on the screen. Terrible casting of Jessica Brown Findlay and Jeremy Irvine. Good performances by Andrew Scott and Tom Wilkinson, which prevent me from giving it a one-star-rating. Don't waste your time on this.