My wife recommended this movie to me and after secretly viewing the trailer I didn't really want to see it. But...as my wife has never recommended something I didn't end up liking, I gave in and watched the film with her. What can I say? Her record stands. This was a perfect recommendation. It's about a flippant young woman, Kate Beckinsale, who, after the death of her parents, goes to live with some obscure relatives at a place called "Cold Comfort Farm." Upon arrival, she finds the family manse lives up to its name as everyone she meets seem enveloped in a shroud of doom and/or filth. The farm is rather run-down and the family members seem to not care about making things better as they are as run down and filthy as the lodgings appear. One by one, however, our determined orphan lass gets to know the family and learns of their secret dreams and what is keeping them from it. It seems there is a reclusive dowager in an upstairs room who somehow holds and iron grip on the rest of the family due to something mysterious that happened many years ago. All she will eventually say about it is "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!" This doesn't deter Beckinsale's character as she weaves an air of trust and optimism among the family members who begin to look to her for answers to their dilemmas. Does she get to the crone who saw something nasty in the woodshed? I'll never tell. But let me add this - this movie ain't no "Pollyanna." It's a family film, for sure, but is not all sweet and saccharine and therefore unrealistic. Beckinsale's character is a wonderful role model.
Review of Cold Comfort Farm
