The storyline bears very little similarity to Michael Innes's novel and the fight at the end is a bit infantile but this film is good. The story in the film is a bit like one of those cheesy and awful Children's Film Foundation films I detest so much, in fact it's like the Disney organisation found a discarded CFF script and turned it into a better film. Everything in this film is idealised and this is what makes it so cosy. Even the portrayal of life on the streets in Los Angeles at the beginning is very sanitised. Jodie Foster is transported from this idealised American urban deprivation to an idealised England where butlers who look like David Niven work in stately homes and where people in awful 1970s fashions still travel by steam train. It is a good film for youngsters as the plot is not hard to follow. It may not be a great film, but it is beautiful to look at. Ron Goodwin wrote an excellent score, very reminiscent of Ralph Vaughn Williams, which really adds to the film. Yes, do a remake, but keep the English setting. Helen Mirren would be great as Lady Gwendolyn and Tom Hanks would be my choice to play Priory even though he's American. I can think of a few good British actors to play Bundage. How about Hugh Laurie? Or better still Rowan Atkinson. Jodie Foster could play Clara Grimsworthy this time.
Review of Candleshoe
