From Time to Time (2010)

That was an excellent one.

Better Late Then Never

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

From Time to Time was released in 2009, and is a very charming children's story. As I was watching this movie I found myself loving the story but disliking the movie. Julian Fellowes, Director and Writer of this picture who has won an Oscar for his writing in 2001′s Gosford Park, adapted the screenplay from Lucy M. Boston's novel The Chimneys of Treasure.Maggie Smith and Alex Etel are the stars of this film, along with supporting actors consisting of Hugh Bonneville, Dominick West, and Timothy Spall. Maggie Smith, as always, did an exceptional job with her role; it wasn't necessarily realistically portrayed throughout, which I personally prefer in any film genre, but was nonetheless believable with the movie-type she was in. Maggie Smith just always seems to have a real grasp on her part, and how it should reflect the movie as a whole. Alex Etel carried the lead role of this film, and personally I don't know how this kid ever got into the acting industry. His lines are uncomfortably dry, with the only emotion that ever comes is when it is painfully clear that his director has told him to cry, laugh, etc., and even that is hard to watch without cringing or grimacing. Never once did I believe his character, or was taken into the world of the movie when he was on screen, which was sadly 90% of the film. I would have much preferred if the role had been given to some other actor such as Asa Butterfield, or some unknown child actor. Thankfully, Maggie Smith's consistent character, along with other believable appearances from Hugh Bonneville and especially Timothy Spall, were able to distract from this.Julian Fellowes is a very good writer. It has been quite some time since I have last seen Gosford Park, but I do remember thinking that the dialogue was very good in his Oscar winning piece. I have also lately enjoyed the good writing of his in the BBC Television hit drama Downton Abbey. So I am unsure what went on here. The dialogue was very lousy, and the movie as a whole was very poorly concluded. This is the second of his only two attempts at directing, which was also rather bad. There were points where characters were put in a situation with lines that would be very urgent, but they would be very calm, which is clearly the fault of the director not of the actors. Or another example would be having a group of characters break into song simultaneously for just a few seconds, while meanwhile a great disaster is going on directly behind them. There were just many instances where it was clear the actors wanted to do something else, that they knew was better, and were probably right. Altogether, the writing, and especially the directing, was extremely poorly done, which made the movie difficult to watch. Which was a shame, because underneath of all of it what a really good story about a child learning about the lives of his ancestors, along with his own growth. From Time to Time was a great disappointment to me not because I had really high hopes going into it, frankly I had never even heard of the film before, but because Mr. Fellowes took a really good story and made it into a rather "blah" movie. I wish I had been able to like this movie because of the story, but the way that it was put together was just too much of a distraction.I give this movie a dissatisfied 5.2/10.

Since this is a film of The CHIMNEYS of Green Knowe, any reviewer mistaking it for the CHILDREN of Green Knowe will naturally be disappointed. I saw the 1980s series The Children of Green Knowe, and I loved it. It inspired me to go out to the house outside of Cambridge (where I live) where Lucy M Boston lived, and I loved that too. But this film had a much more exciting story to tell, and a much more wonderful cast to tell it through, and I thought the screenplay and direction by Julian Fellowes were perfect, as were the performances, especially those of Alex Etel and Maggie Smith. For some reason I never read the Green Knowe books as a child, so I came to the TV adaptations (both the 80s series and this masterful new one) fresh, and could enjoy them without preconceptions. Although I love Julian Fellowes' Downton Abbey very much, it has never moved me the way From Time To Time has. I wept happily throughout the last twenty minutes, and I am a large hairy tweed-clad old man with a bristling moustache and (I'm told) a somewhat forbidding manner. It introduced me to a whole new world, or several worlds, all so life-like that it was like inhabiting them myself. It is late now, I am going to bed soon, and I hope to dream myself back to it.

Although there is "time traveling" elements in this movie, it is not a science fiction. It is more a ghost story like the movie "ghost".The time traveling element is mostly used to tell a story that happened in the past.The movie is a little slow at the beginning. Not everything make sense. For example, someone supposedly died inside the chimney. However, his body was not found; not even a skeleton.When the boy found the lost jewelry, his grandmother behaved in a completely idiotic manner as if possessed by greed.The makeup for the blind girl failed; she does not look blind.The subtitle can be turned on with the DVD player's control, but not via the DVD's main menu.

When I saw the writer/director was Julian Fellowes, and the cast included his 'Downton' alumni Hugh Bonneville and the ever fabulous Maggie Smith, not to mention such great British actors as Dominic West(of 'The Wire'fame) and Pauline Collins ('Shirley Valentine' herself)and the perennially interesting Timothy Spall (Secrets & Lives) it seemed that all the omens were good....For me though it only went to show that success as a writer does not automatically translate into success as a Director. The great writer was unable to let go of the desire to tell the story as if it were being 'read'. Everything was articulated (Pauline Collins character at one point almost iterating her own movements out loud ('I think i will just move this cup from her'...we know, we can see you moving the cup!).The juvenile 'slave' character had an absurdly modern American accent (and a rather refined one for such a character) and only Maggie Smith seemed able to rise above the poor direction (naturally). The story idea has merit, but for Ghost story it lacked atmosphere, and the language was clunky. The characters were often stereotypical and one dimensional, no wonder this movie disappeared as soon as it was released!