This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely brilliant

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I had never heard of this movie, but found it on a list of "under-appreciated period movies". Being a huge fan of period dramas such as adaptations of Austen, Bronte, et. al. I decided to give it a try. My wife only asked that I chose "Something pleasant" for our evening's viewing. The creepy opening scene had both of us wondering whether I made a bad choice, but the movie soon switched pace. We didn't realize at first that it was a comedy, but found ourselves laughing almost immediately.Many other reviews have gone into the plot, acting and faithfulness to the book (which I haven't read), so I won't bother with all that.I'll just say that this movie kept us engaged and laughing. The delightful sort of movie that leaves you with a smile on your face and makes you want to see it again. And it makes you really are about about this wacky family. It reminds me of Frank Capra's wonderful "You Can't Take It With You" in that respect.The only negative is that ever since we saw this my wife has been cracking me up by saying "I saw something nasty in the woodshed" when least expected.

A young woman in 1930s England tries to mooch off her relatives as she gathers material for her future career as a writer. This is meant to be a spoof of the novels of such writers as Dickens and Austen. It is described as a comedy, and the way the actors deliver their lines certainly suggests that the dialog is dripping with wit. The only problem is that there is nary a single chuckle to be had from the humorless script. With hardly a plot to hold one's interest, it soon turns into a dreary bore. It is based on a popular comic novel from the 1930s; hence the humor is either dated or the screenplay does not do justice to the novel. It's a shame because it has a good cast that seems to be really trying.

Loved this movie. Loved the book and was totally impressed with how they adapted it, nothing was lost.The story is simple: Set in England, sometime around the 1930's - a young woman, Flora Post, is left with a very small annuity after her parents die. She needs to either find a suitable job, or find some suitable relative with whom to live.After she sends out enquiries to a number of relatives and receives responses, she decides to go to her country cousins, the Starkadders.Flora has no qualms about setting off on this adventure, but her cousins have NO idea of what they have let themselves in for.We join her on her adventures and are completely sucked into the story and the surroundings. Nothing defies her, nothing worries her, she sails through the lives and routines, gloom and joy of her cousins and their associates with the greatest of ease and comfort.Flora loves to organize things, and she relentlessly creates order from chaos at Starkadder Farm, in a charming way.There is so much to love about the story itself which is lightheartedly and gently making fund of a certain time in British history.The acting is amazing, the casting is incredible. The pacing of the movie is great - not for one minute does one feel bored or restless. We have seen it 5 or 6 times and it retains its charm.Highly recommended for fans of the out of the ordinary, or British humour.

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.