***SPOILERS*** Artsy smartzy Igmar Bergman like British film that takes place in the dead of winter in a small Scottish town involving some half dozen persons who live there.
There's mother and daughter Elspeth & Frances played by Phylida Law & Emma Thompson, who are mother and daughter in real life, who have trouble communicating with each other. Frances a professional photographer is sick and tired of living in the town since her husband suddenly passed away and is seriously thinking of resettling in far off and warm Australia. There's also Frances' teenage son Alex, Garry Hollywood, who's haunted by his father's ghost and is so into himself and his problems that he doesn't see tomboy Nita, Arlne Cockburn, is crazy about him and wants Alex to be her boyfriend every time he passes her riding his bike by the local bus stop.
There's also spinsters Lily & Chloe, Sheila Reid & Sandra Voe, who find solace in their boring lives attending funerals for people that they don't know just to put some meaning and excitement into their lives. And finally there's Tom & Sam, Sean Bggerstaff & Dougas Murphy, who just happen to be playing hooky from school who, Tom that is, ends up meeting Elspeth by the shore and unconsciously brings both her and her estranged daughter Frances back together by having her photograph them. The two boys also find two kittens abandoned in a sea cave to their frozen fate and end up adopting them. Which in fact makes them skipping school worthwhile in saving the kittens lives.
***SPOILERS*** By the time the film is over you get the impression that everything was fine between all those involved in it with Elspeth & Frances together again and Alex & Nita now boyfriend and girlfriend. There's also Lily & Chole finally finding, after checking out all the newspapers obituaries, a funeral to attend and someone, the guest of honor, to morn for. The most confusing thing in the movie was what exactly happened to both Tom & Sam together with their kittens? They just seemed to have happily walked off the edge of the earth, into the frozen Arctic Sea, by the time the movie ended?
There's mother and daughter Elspeth & Frances played by Phylida Law & Emma Thompson, who are mother and daughter in real life, who have trouble communicating with each other. Frances a professional photographer is sick and tired of living in the town since her husband suddenly passed away and is seriously thinking of resettling in far off and warm Australia. There's also Frances' teenage son Alex, Garry Hollywood, who's haunted by his father's ghost and is so into himself and his problems that he doesn't see tomboy Nita, Arlne Cockburn, is crazy about him and wants Alex to be her boyfriend every time he passes her riding his bike by the local bus stop.
There's also spinsters Lily & Chloe, Sheila Reid & Sandra Voe, who find solace in their boring lives attending funerals for people that they don't know just to put some meaning and excitement into their lives. And finally there's Tom & Sam, Sean Bggerstaff & Dougas Murphy, who just happen to be playing hooky from school who, Tom that is, ends up meeting Elspeth by the shore and unconsciously brings both her and her estranged daughter Frances back together by having her photograph them. The two boys also find two kittens abandoned in a sea cave to their frozen fate and end up adopting them. Which in fact makes them skipping school worthwhile in saving the kittens lives.
***SPOILERS*** By the time the film is over you get the impression that everything was fine between all those involved in it with Elspeth & Frances together again and Alex & Nita now boyfriend and girlfriend. There's also Lily & Chole finally finding, after checking out all the newspapers obituaries, a funeral to attend and someone, the guest of honor, to morn for. The most confusing thing in the movie was what exactly happened to both Tom & Sam together with their kittens? They just seemed to have happily walked off the edge of the earth, into the frozen Arctic Sea, by the time the movie ended?