Tuesday, October 9, 2012

From Time to Time (PG) 6.5

From Time to Time (2009): When 13-year-old Tolly returns to his family's ancestral home to spend Christmas with his grandmother, he becomes so entranced by the history of the mansion and its inhabitants that he manages to travel through time to uncover their secrets. (6.3)

Director: Julian Fellowes
Writers: Lucy M. Boston (novel: The Chimneys of Green Knowe), Julian Fellowes (adaptation)
Stars: Alex Etel, Timothy Spall and Maggie Smith

I haven't read the Green Knowe series so this story is completely new to me. Sure, it is a children's book series, and so the storyline is heartwarming and feel-good, etc.; introducing a runaway slave kid from the West Indies almost as a member of the aristocratic family by the captain, all the while having household servants at a different class and all that ... Yeah, okay, whatever. The movie covers two distinct periods, the 1940s and almost two centuries prior to that. The decision to show one of them in warm summer colors and the other in winter blues is quite appropriate. Maggie Smith gives a commanding performance. I expected a bit more sci-fi-esque time-travel antics, but this isn't that kind of a story. My Rating: 6.5

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