Set against the backdrop of a beautiful garden in the heart of London, this contemporary fairy tale revolves around the unlikely friendship between a reclusive young woman and a cantankerous old widower. Bella Brown is a beautifully quirky young woman who dreams of writing and illustrating a successful children’s book. After she is forced by her landlord to deal with her neglected garden or face eviction, she meets her match, nemesis, and unlikely mentor in Alfie Stephenson, a grumpy, loveless, old man who lives next door who happens to be an amazing horticulturalist.
**There comes a time for everyone that changes the life forever.**
This is a very charming title if you are a fantasy film fan. Good looking film posters too from different languages for different regions. In a way, that was my reason to watch this, but anyway I would have seen it sooner or later
... being a cinephile. It was not a popular production, though the cast and storyline interested me more. They have categorised it as a modern day fairy-tale. But it was missing something. Something cinematically convince to its viewers. My best guess is 'stylish presentation'. Yep, it was a similar kind to 'Amélie', ' Citizen Dog' et cetera. It was not based on any book, but would have been a better format for such tale.
It was like those titles I mentioned in the previous paragraph which meets 'The Secret Garden'. Sadly, not well explored in its topics. For instance, the romance part was half-boiled. Funnily, I never knew the film trying to achieve that part. Of course it had a boy and a girl. In fact, three boys against one girl. But which path the narration is taking was well preserved till certain length of the film. Surely somewhat it was a fairy-tale, but most probably not like the one you would be anticipating. Especially in the initial stage, it bettered. Only later on it had started to fall back as a casual film.
The tale of a children's novelist. She is an orphan. Now being an adult, living independently in London, while working in a library. The story of her prior to land in the orphanage was a mystery. So basically she aspires to be a children's writer. Yet to write her first book. It was her normal lonely mechanical life, but one stormy day a trouble comes her way. The next door grumpy old man picking her for a verbal fight for several reasons and one of it were the neglected backyard. Now she has got a countdown to fix the issue. So the remaining the narrative focused on her undertaking, while the other side of her life, she's trying to get a close to an inventor.
> ❝Life and nature, it's just waiting to burst out anywhere it can, seeking light, getting on with it.❞
Definitely it should have been better. Not for just the cinephiles, but even normal people would feel that way. I don't know this filmmaker, but his direction was good, definitely not the writing skill. I think that's where it had failed mostly. It is still an above average, though if the screenplay, including dialogues was done better, then it would have been another level. Particularly, I did not like the transition between the scenes, events and the characters. One of the lines said at the final stage, after the story had taken a twist was poorly penned. That was the godfather of all the clichés, should have avoided at any cost.
By the way the actors were good. From Jessica Brown to Tom Wilkinson and other two did their respective roles finely. The synopsis says it is about an author, but the film explored different way. The entire film given preference to gardening. It took phases and were decent too. But at final stage it takes a twist by giving a convincing reason. But if that's what the whole story was relied on to surprise its viewer, then that's did not do its job as expected. Overall, the writing should have been improved to give the film a better chance to do well with the film goers.
Nonetheless, it is a watchable film. Especially I think women, family audience could enjoy it better. I would say the character Bella carried it all the way, despite Alfie jumped into the main storyline strongly in a mid way. The basic story was good enough. Bella is being a loner all her life, how suddenly everything has changed around her was the purpose of the film. Jessica Brown was a perfect choice for the role. She looked more beautiful than ever. Watch it for her, for the cast. Only a few people would feel they had seen a great film. It's just a good British film.
**6.5/10**
