Ethel & Ernest (2016)

Good idea lost in the noise

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I saw this cartoon film advertised in the paper, and I searched for an image of the graphic novel it is based on, I sort of recognised it, I loved the films The Snowman and Father Christmas, so I was looking forward to another Raymond Briggs adaptation. Basically it tells the story of Briggs parents, Ethel (Brenda Blethyn) and Ernest (Jim Broadbent), from their meeting in 1928 until their deaths in 1971. London milkman Ernest courts and marries housemaid Ethel, they have son Raymond in 1934, during the breakout of the Second World War. Raymond must be evacuated to the countryside, Ethel tearfully allows him to leave to live with his aunts in Dorset, while Ernest joins the fire service to tackle to shocking carnage from various bombings and attacks on the city. Eventually hostility ends ans Raymond returns home, Ethel and Ernest are concerned of his choice to enter a grammar school to study art, he goes on to from National Service to art college and a teaching post. Ethel and Ernest meanwhile continue to live their lives together mostly at home, Ernest is easygoing and has an interest modern progress and technology, while Ethel does her duties and concerns, this includes her worrying for adult Raymond (Luke Treadaway) when he marries schizophrenic Jean (Karyn Claydon). Ethel and Ernest listen to the radio and watch television to overhear and watch the most momentous social and political developments of the 20th century. The Briggs family is struck by tragedy when Ethel slips away, developing Alzheimer's, she dies and leaves Ernest to grieve, but then he passes away later the same year, Raymond mourns, but goes on to have a successful career as an author and illustrator. Also starring Pam Ferris as Mrs. Bennett / Aunty Betty, Roger Allam as Middle Aged Doctor, Peter Wight as Detective Sergeant Burnley, Virginia McKenna as Lady of the House, June Brown as Ernest's Step Mother and Simon Day as Alf. Broadbent and Blethyn are well chosen to voice the real- life characters of the story, they are very pleasant people with nice normal lives, it is mostly just them talking about the recent events of the time, and doing household things, there is no real story as such, it just works well as a great look at social interaction and how the world around you can affect you, and it has splendid animation, it is a wonderfully simple and enjoyable animated drama. Very good!

I've just got around to watching this today. As a 50-year-old I could relate to so much of it and relate it to my grandparents and uncles and aunties who were around during this time. Frankly, I found the film utterly heartbreaking. I must have had tears in my eyes pretty solidly for the last 30 minutes of it. It was quite overwhelming in places especially when Raymond views a body in the morgue which was very reminiscent of something that happened to me recently. I was going to write that it was a perfect slice of life but that is not big enough as it really does pretty much cover two entire lives. My boys who are under ten it has to be said were not gripped by it and did fade in and out of watching it but for adults, I can't recommend it highly enough.

I had, of course, read the reviews of this film before unintentionally falling upon it by chance on Christmas television.I have long lamented the lack of charm in most of the recent Disney films, for example, indeed the absence of charm in today's society in general, but it is present in this film in abundance. Not only is this film visually captivating but I was frequently moved to tears by the unexpected pathos of this story, which is a microcosm of the experiences of that most extra-ordinary generation who fought and survived the Second World War and who's members, through age and slow disease, are now virtually all departed from this world.This film is sincere, amusing and observant, and like the Snowman, however different in style, will endure forever.

What a wonderful thing Raymond Briggs has done. This magnificent, sensitive and funny animated film about the lives of his parents Ethel and Ernest is a triumph. It surpasses even his famous THE SNOWMAN (1982) and, I daresay, is what he will truly be remembered for. In this age in which we live at present, when the ordinary people are rising up in revolt against their snotty and arrogant politicians, in what the elites patronisingly call 'populism' (and what is wrong with the populus, then, that it should become a term of derision?), we have here the perfect paean to real life, to real people, to real hopes and to real dreams. With his subtle and loving humour, which pervades the entire film, Briggs brings to life his parents in the most intimate possible manner. He allows us to chuckle at their foibles, without ever once looking down upon their numerous limitations. The story starts in 1928 when his parents meet. Ethel is a lady's maid who waves at the jolly young man who rides past her window every day. Before long, he turns up with flowers and asks her to go to 'the pictures' with him. And soon enough they are married. But time goes by and they do not seem able to have a baby, and Ethel cries and says she is getting too old. But Fate intervenes, and Raymond is born, though the doctor warns Ernest they must not have any more, as 'it was hit and miss' and 'more children means no wife'. So they settle for the one child. We are taken through the whole of the period between 1928 and 1971 as seen through the eyes of Ethel and Ernest. Ernest reads the paper every day eagerly, and is always saying things like: 'Crikey! Hitler's just invaded Russia!' and reacting to world events in the kitchen. Ethel pays little attention and does not much grasp the significance of things. For instance, when told that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are going to meet with Hitler, her reaction is 'He can't be too bad then.' Raymond does not hesitate to make fun of himself, mocking his own affectations as an art student and his refusal to comb his hair. Every day domesticity is elevated to the status of a mythology in this film, and Alan Bennett's eye for the details of daily life is actually surpassed here, which I would not have thought possible. This film is really a love poem by Raymond Briggs to his parents, whose own lifelong love story is so touchingly revealed to us in all of its minutiae. Rarely can anyone have paid such an intense and devoted tribute to his parents, in any art form. To do so with Briggs's magical drawing talent is so evocative and so moving that we have here what is truly a transcendent work of art. The direction by Roger Mainwood is perfect, and Jim Broadbent's voice for Ernest and Brenda Blethyn's voice for Ethel are beyond perfection. The other voices are also excellent. This film may not have the obvious attraction of snowmen flying through the air, but it soars nevertheless, higher than the air in fact, into a realm of pure love and pure simplicity. Long live real people! And may those who celebrate them always be honoured, as Raymond Briggs deserves to be for many long, long years to come.