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Rating:  - Fantastic!
Many good and thorough reviews have already been written on the movie but I wanted to just add my 5 stars to the rest.
I've been buying period movies from time to time trying to find a classic like Pride and Prejudice (with Colin Firth), Wives and Daughters and Sense and Sensability (with Emma T) and I have been sadly frustrated with my purchases lately. Then I bought this and it was TOTALLY worth it. It was wonderful and I enjoyed every minute of it. Lots of different story lines intertwined and most come to a happy ending. I'm very glad I bought this movie and listened to the good reviews!
Rating: - WOW, another perfect BBC production
This show was just plain perfection. The acting was wonderful (as was the casting) and the seamless story (a compilation of 3 of Gaskell's stories) was just impecably done.
This was such a pleasure to watch. I cannot rave enough about how well done this production was. There is just not a lot more to say about this fabulous show....
Rating: - Hey: Cranford Doesn't Suck!
Let me make something perfectly clear, OK? I'm a guy. Like most guys, my favorite kind of movie has plenty of action, with fights, car chases, explosions, hot babes, and violence, with a little blood or gore sprinkled in. So why did I give this one five stars? Let me try to explain.
Going in, your typical red-blooded American male might be put off a bit; judging by it's cover, Cranford appears to be just another in a long line of boring English bonnet romances, full of people in wigs and weird clothes sitting around in parlours talking to each other. If you're looking for a testosterone-fueled trip through hell, a la Tarantino, Peckinpah or Woo, you might be disappointed. I waited and waited, but I could find not one fist fight, stabbing, shooting, rape, steamy sex scene, unexposed nipple or horrible murder in the whole dang thing!
But gents, don't automatically dismiss this one: if you look, you will find a surprising amount of death, gore and violence: in one scene, a kid smashes in the skull of a defenseless rabbit. In another, a cat pukes up some hand-knit lace. And then a cow falls into a lime pit and gets all it's hide burned off. So I guess you could say that animals have a tough time in this miniseries.
But the people have some rough patches as well. In the first twenty minutes the young carpenter Jem falls from a ladder and suffers a compound fracture of his right forearm, which is pretty gruesome. You wouldn't think that there would be many deaths in this one either, but it seems like people are keeling over every other minute. A very young kid dies of croup, a crippled young woman dies of who knows what, one of the main characters, Deborah Jenkyns (Eileen Atkins), strokes out, and the great Michael Gambon's character, the lovelorn Mr. Holbrook, contracts pneumonia and bites it before he has a chance to marry his long lost love, Mattie Jenkyns ((there is nothin' like a DAME) Judy Dench). The local shopkeeper Mr. Johnson is clubbed on the back of his head and robbed. A family of squatters is forced to live in abject squalor while the father must poach game to keep his family from starvation.
There is a top-notch "babe" in the series too. Kimberly Nixon plays the young daughter of the local parson. She is a "pretty as a picture" actress, first-rate eye candy, a perfect rosy-cheeked beauty seemingly born for this type of film, who will have a long and very bright future in the many inevitable English period romances to be produced over the next ten years. I hoped and prayed for a scene of her swimming naked in a sylvan lake or even a brief glimpse of her in the boudoir, but alas it never happened. I guess you will have to use your imagination.
Another huge negative: it appeared there were no "pavement princesses" or brothels in the town of Cranford. Or they chose not to show us. Damn!
Nor were there coach chases, bloody shootouts, pub brawls, adulterers, adulteresses or dispicable villains in Cranford.
However, you do get a lot of humor, color, poignancy, romance, emotion, beauty, magnificent costumes, fabulous photography, and wonderful character development and acting. With all that, I guess I can overlook the absence of fist fights and sex. I hate to admit that; it's not very manly of me, but it's true. Cranford did not suck.
Rating: - Cranford
I enjoyed seeing the DVD. It is British and the subtitles helped understand what was happening. I especially liked the story.
Rating: - I Loved Cranford
This was a joy to watch. If you love period films you will love this one!Such great talent! I laughed and cried.
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