The Bookshop
Directed by:
Isabel CoixetScreenplay:
Isabel CoixetCinematography:
Jean-Claude LarrieuComposer:
Alfonso de VilallongaCast:
Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, Honor Kneafsey, Michael Fitzgerald, Jorge Suquet, Frances Barber, Gary Piquer, Nigel O'Neill, Mary O'Driscoll (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
The Bookshop is set in 1959, Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), a free-spirited widow, puts grief behind her and risks everything to open up a bookshop – the first such shop in the sleepy seaside town of Hardborough, England. Fighting damp, cold and considerable local apathy she struggles to establish herself but soon her fortunes change for the better. By exposing the narrow-minded local townsfolk to the best literature of the day including Nabokov’s scandalising Lolita and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, she opens their eyes thereby causing a cultural awakening in a town which has not changed for centuries. Her activities bring her a kindred spirit and ally in the figure of Mr. Brundish (Bill Nighy) who is himself sick of the town’s stale atmosphere. But this mini social revolution soon brings her fierce enemies: she invites the hostility of the town’s less prosperous shopkeepers and also crosses Mrs. Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), Hardborough’s vengeful, embittered alpha female who is herself a wannabe doyenne of the local arts scene.When Florence refuses to bend to Gamart’s will, they begin a struggle not just for the bookshop but for the very heart and soul of the town. (Transmission Films)
(more)Videos (4)
Reviews (1)
I love books, and maybe that's why I ended up giving this an extra star, even though it’s not my usual style. But I have to say, The Bookshop is a beautifully simple human drama about Florence Green, a woman who tries to navigate life and opens a bookstore in a picturesque English town. The people around her feel like they’re straight out of a Shakespearean play—sometimes kind, sometimes downright cruel—and the film really explores those relationships. Emily Mortimer plays the melancholic Florence with such grace, but Bill Nighy steals the show. He plays her male counterpart with such ease and elegance that his character quickly became one of my all-time favorites. The Bookshop totally clicked with me. It’s the kind of film that surprises you when you go in with no expectations and then completely sweeps you away with its mood and charm.
()
