Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

Truly Dreadful Film

Overrated

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is a wonderful movie--my favorite comedy of all-time, and it's based on a truly classic novel, first published in 1932. In Flora Poste, "Robert Poste's child," Stella Gibbons created one of the enduring characters in the great canon of English Literature. Part Thoroughly Modern Millie and part Mary Poppins, this unflappable and distinctively British neo-flapper is always totally in control. She can't be bought. She can't be sold. She can't be baited (although she can be dated--but only on her own terms). And she always knows which end is up, and exactly what's what. She's urbane and hip, but she likes to preserve neatness and cherishes a sense of order: "Nature's all very well in her place, but she mustn't be allowed to make things untidy . . . " Sounds like Mary Poppins! And like Mary, Flora is going to enter a dysfunctional household and set things right. (And like Mary, after "mission accomplished," she will fly off into the sky at the end.)It is most "diverting" to watch Flora repeatedly go nose to nose with the dirty, loutish and intimidating Starkadders without blinking or losing one bit of her composure and equanimity. As for Kate Beckinsale's performance as Flora, It's hard to imagine that this demure and perfectly controlled actress is the same person who will later play the sexy vampire warrior Selene who specializes in killing werewolves in the horror-action series "Underworld." But perhaps the werewolves of Underworld are not so different from the Starkadders of Cold Comfort, whom she also subdues, but in a more genteel fashion, and without any blood and gore. In both cases, Kate is triumphant (and does Kate Beckinsale remind anybody else of Kate Middleton? Watch "Serendipity.")Other delights of Cold Comfort: Joanna Lumley as Mrs. Mary Smiling: watch this familiar vivacious actress command a scene and hold a conversation with her eyes. Oh, and Joanna still has lots of "it"; that's her as Aunt Emma in "The Wolf of Wall Street."Stephen Fry as Mr. Mybug. Pseudo-intellectual pomposity played to perfection. My favorite line: "let me warn you. I'm a queer, moody brute, but there's rich soil in here if you care to dig for it." His plan to write a treatise proving that Branwell Bronte was actually the author of the classics written by his sisters is hilarious.But my favorite scene in the entire movie is when Amos Starkadder (played by Ian McKellen) in his role as hellfire and brimstone amateur evangelist preacher, delivers his fiery sermon to the "Church of the Quiverin' Brethren." Yes, the congregation actually quivers and shakes as Amos taunts them with the tortures that await them all: "You know what it's like when you burn your hand takin' a cake out of the oven or lighting one of them Godless cigarettes? And it stings with a fearful pain. Aye? And you run to clap a bit of butter on it to take the pain away, aye? Aye. Well, I'll tell ye. THERE'LL BE NO BUTTER IN HELL!"And of course I must mention horrible old Aunt Ida Doom, whose refrains "I saw something nasty in the woodshed" and "There's always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm" are the mantras that maintain her tyrannical control over the homestead--the demonic spells with which Flora must contend. And there's much more! Every role is perfectly cast, and played to perfection. This film is truly a must-see. A whole-hearted 10 out of 10 stars.

Flora Poste is an aspiring novelist whose idea of writing seems to comprise of stealing bits from famous authors and scribbling them in her notebook,presumably trusting to her muse for inspiration in cobbling them together.Not unlike then Miss Stella Gibbons who borrows from sources as diverse as Austen and Lawrence to produce "Cold Comfort Farm".Her novel's saving grace is that it is clever (but not clever - clever)and very funny. Mis Poste is an orphan trying to exist on £100 a year allowance whilst awaiting literary inspiration. She goes to live with relatives in rural Sussex,the Starkadders,who run the eponymous "Cold Comfort Farm". There is a Chaucerian vulgarity to their personal habits and jovial disregard of middle class morals which discomfits Miss Poste and she decides to lift them up a peg or two,to "help" them whether or not they want it - a bit like "Amelie",in fact. Every literary cliché about rural England is cheerfully exploded,the lusty farmer's sons,the hell and brimstone preacher,the dark secret,Miss Gibbons mocks them all - but in a good - natured way. Mr J.Schlesinger,master of the British New Wave fifty years ago,manages the difficult task of making everything seem totally O.T.T.whilst maintaining a firm grasp. Miss K.Beckinsale is perfect as Miss Poste: a character never actually meant to be believable,merely lovable.Like a sophisticated Fairy Godmother. Mr Freddie Jones and Miss Eileen Atkins avoid Grand Guignol by a thoroughly enjoyable hairsbreadth. My late aunt had a copy of "Cold Comfort Farm" which was published whilst she was in her early twenties.She recommended it to me as a teenager but I decided it wasn't cool enough for a man who dug Gerry Mulligan and Shorty Rogers. Clearing out her house,I rescued just two of her books,one she had won as a school prize and "Cold Comfort Farm". I found it just as cool as Gerry and Shorty.I just wish she was still around so I could tell her.

It is the 1930s, and London gadabout Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) has just been orphaned. With no options or ambition (except to experience life and become a writer), she goes to live in the country with distant relatives. Upon arriving at the dilapidated farm, she finds its inhabitants are all gloomy, filthy, wretched oafs, so naturally she sets about improving their lives.This basic plot has been done before, most notably in "Amelie," but this BBC movie is terrible. There's no humor, the characters are all off-putting, and the changes Flora brings about - including turning a spaced-out naïf into a debutante, a deranged hermit into a fine lady, and a bumbling farm hand into a Hollywood star - are completely unbelievable. As Flora, Beckinsale is flat and tiresome and the relatives are reduced to English hillbillies. This is a tedious and unappealing movie.

The movie opens with "I saw something nasty in the woodshed." It is a Freudian reference. Freud originally thought such visions were manifestations of actual events that were so horrible that the memory was repressed. He later renounced that theory and decided that such dreams were manifestations of suppressed desires and emotions. The subject never actually sees what was nasty and the woodshed is not real, either.Modern psychotherapists, for the most part with minimal training, have gone back to Freud's original theory, but the supposedly 'repressed memories" invariably are so far-fetched as to violate fundamental laws of physics. Ada Doom's memory, for example, would probably have a woodshed with many rooms, stairs both up and down, windows, etc., all fitting within the small exterior of the building. The "something" nasty would include people who may well have been dead at the time, or who were far away, or who never existed at all. The ax implies murder and human sacrifice, a manifestation of feelings that she was mistreated by her own parents (or maybe Robert Poste). The dark wood-stains and shadows imply blood. The interior of the woodshed is dark, mysterious and quiet, as of a horror lurking there -- a hidden truth that no one can face.The movie, made during the height of 1990s witch hunt, parodies people who use memories of imaginary (or even real) events to control everybody around them. Interestingly, earlier productions were made during similar cultural periods. The 'something nasty' can represent anything from incest to fear of financial ruin to communism.The nasty memories, probably of fictitious events, manifest themselves in the untidiness of the Starkadders. The farm is practically in ruins, despite the fact the Starkadders are wealthy. Everything is all loose ends, hidden secrets, unfinished business. Flora Poste represents the traditional Freudian therapist, one who sees through all the junk of the mind and starts putting things in order by forcing people to see the truth about themselves and their situation, to stop dwelling on events (which are imaginary anyway) of the past and which have absolutely no bearing on the present. The Starkadders, one by one, have a paradigm shift away from suspicion, secrecy, and guilt to productivity, optimism, and adventurousness. They no longer live in fear.The movie ridicules fear and guilt. They are not just 'untidy,' they enslave us, tie us down, and keep us from reaching our full potential. Flora Poste represents the whole woman, idealized. She fears nothing for herself, despite the fact that she is the one character that actually has serious problems to deal with. Orphaned, virtually penniless, with an uncertain future, yet she could not care less. Unlike the miserable Starkadders who are helpless despite wealth, position and power, Flora Poste is the master of her own fate despite her lack of all the advantages the the Starkadders have.The movie allows us to laugh at our fears and shortcomings, and encourages us to take control of our own destinies. What is not to like about it?