hjmsia49 Review of A Month in the Country

A Month in the Country (1987)

Brilliant Acting Cannot Overcome a Plot That Fails To Deliver

[5/10 · 28 September 2008]

I am usually a great fan of British films and when I saw the cast of this one, I obtained a copy from my local library. The description of the film on the jacket caused me expect a lot more. After watching it, I wondered if I might have missed something? The jacket stated "Birkin ignites long denied passion within the pastor's young wife." If so, it was the most understated passion I have ever seen in a film. They never touch despite numerous times alone together? She walks with him through the woods and nothing happens between them. She goes to the belfry to say goodbye and gives him apples? She picks up his book and you assume she will open it and see the rose she gave him? But no, she puts it down and leaves? I kept waiting for her "long denied passion" to finally ignite but it apparently never does. Finally, the jacket states, "The quiet of their rural haven erupts in conflict and confrontation..." I saw no eruption, no conflict or confrontation, did I miss something. Everything about this film is so understated as to be almost immobile. Admittedly, the cast is brilliant in striving to convince you that something memorable is about to happen, but it never does. I have enjoyed Firth, Branagh and Richardson much more in other performances and I expected much more from this film which at the end left me wondering where the three main characters will go from here?