TV Cream

Films: H is for...

Housekeeping

Bill Forsyth, chums, is ace. From the fantastic That Sinking Feeling (‘Don’t take the toilet bowls, those things can be traced.’) through the no-brainer classics Greg and Local, to the bleaker outposts of overlooked ice cream fritter war epic Comfort and Joy – that’s four solid gold ingots in five years, you small boys! Sadly, the latter’s poor performance at the hustings meant the bike-riding ascetic had to look further afield for inspiration, and funding, until Columbia head David Puttnam threw him a lifeline in the form of a novel about two girls and their mad aunt versus the populace of a conservative ’50s small town in – appropriately enough – British Columbia. It’s charming in an airy sort of way (and thank God Diane Keaton walked out of the aunt part early on – a superannuated Annie Hall we didn’t need) but we want Forsyth directing his own original stuff, thank you very much. Er, except maybe Being Human. And CP Grogan *does* sound like some kind of philosopher-cum-1960s-BBC-talking-head, doesn’t she?

Click to comment

0 Comments

  1. Matt Patton

    March 15, 2010 at 1:30 am

    You underestimate the film a bit. Forsythe never overplayed the conservatism of the town, or the madness of the aunt (Christine Lahti gave a lovely, quiet performance). Much better than his other American-lensed film, which wasted his talents and those of Burt Reynolds (honestly) on a dreadful script by John Sayles. Can’t remember the name of it now.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top