ALBATROSS

Jessica Brown-Findlay is on roll right now playing willful young girls determined to get their own way.  Fresh off ‘Downtown Abbey’ where as Lady Sybil she gets to run off with the handsome family chauffer, she’s now playing Emelia a very stylish wayward and somewhat wild 17 year-old budding wordsmith trying to 'find herself' in a small provincial seaside resort on England’s South Coast. To make ends meet she gets a job cleaning in a rather sorry-looking cliffside Guest House that is run by a disjointed middle-aged marred couple.  Jonathan the husband spends all day up in the attic looking at a blank computer screen as he struggles to replicate the success of the one novel he wrote long ago, whilst Joa his bitter wife is constantly angry with him (and indeed the world at large) because she was forced to give her rather mediocre acting career to play hotelier.

They have a sensible clever teenager daughter, bookish Beth, who is hoping to be get accepted into Oxford University, and despite the fact that she and Emelia are total opposites they soon become fast friends.  Jonathan also takes a shine to Emelia and even though he is her new best friends father, and she had been dating a handsome lad her age from the village, when he is ostensibly giving her creative writing tips she takes her kit off for him and makes out.

This very low-key coming-of-age story is very charming in an old fashioned British way.  It’s light, bright, a little trite but otherwise quite a delight.  I caught it on the plane the other day when I realized that it was the only movie out of rather a wide selection that I hadn't seen …. and would want to see that is.      Perfect  for Crossing The Pond.


★★★★★★★★