Product Description
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Mrs. Palfrey, recently widowed after a long happy
marriage, moves into a London residential hotel more lively and
elegant on line than in fact. She determines to make the best of
it among an odd assortment of people, and she particularly hopes
her grandson, a London resident, will visit. When she slips on a
walk and is aided by a penniless young writer, she invites him to
dine at the Claremont and plays along when her dining mates
assume he's her grandson. A friendship develops giving her a
companion with whom she can talk about memories and poetry and
giving him ideas and support for his writing. But what of her
actual family? How it plays out is the movie's story.
Review
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BY ROGER EBERT You may think there is no hotel in London
like the Claremont, where Mrs. Palfrey becomes a lodger. No hotel
where respectable gentlefolk can live by the month and have their
breakfasts and dinners served to them in a dining room where good
manners prevail. No hotel where the bellman is an aged ruin who
nevertheless barks commands at the desk clerk. No hotel where the
elevator is a brass cage that rises and falls majestically and
discharges its passengers from behind ornate sliding doors. But
here and there such relics survive. A very few of my readers will
have stayed at the Eyrie Mansion on Jermyn Street when it was run
by Henry and Doddy Togna, and they will nod in re,
although the mansion, to be sure, had no dining room. They will
remember Bob the hall porter, who drove Henry crazy by getting
drunk every eighth day ("If Bob got drunk every seventh day, on a
regular schedule like, we could plan for it"). Mrs. Palfrey (Joan
Plowright) books into the Claremont almost blindly. She is in
flight from life with her grown daughter in Scotland, and wants
to be independent. She is a stoic. Shown her room (twin beds of
different heights, a desk, a mirror, a straight chair and an arm
chair), she says, "Oh, dear!" Learning from the aged ruin that
the bathroom is down the hall and the early bird gets the hot
water, she cannot even manage an "oh, dear!" In the dining room,
she meets the regulars, particularly the brisk Mrs. Arbuthnot
(Anna Massey), who tells the others to shut up when they require
such coaching. There is also dear Mr. Osborne (Robert Lang), who
asks her to a "do" at the Mason's Hall. Mrs. Palfrey hopes to
spend time with her grandson Desmond, who works in the City, but
he is an ingrate who never returns her calls. Then one day, while
returning from the branch library with a copy of Lady
Chatterley's Lover for Mrs. Arbuthnot, she stumbles on the
sidewalk and is rescued by a nice young man named Ludovic (Rupert
Friend). He invites her into the borrowed basement flat when he
lives, serves her tea, rubs disinfectant on her and
explains he is a writer who supports himself as a street
musician. Ludovic is too good to be true, really. Too kind, too
gentle, too patient with a lady 60 years his senior. But "Mrs.
Palfrey at the Claremont" is the kind of movie where nice people
turn up, and soon Ludovic is doing Mrs. Palfrey a favor. She is
embarrassed that everyone in the dining room wonders why her
grandson has never appeared at dinner, and so she asks Ludovic to
pretend to be Desmond, and he agrees. Just as teenagers enjoy
escapist movies, so do the elderly. They simply prefer a gentler
pace. What is touching about "Mrs. Palfrey" is that she is
allowed to be elderly, and not turned into a hip-hop granny. This
movie is based on a novel by Elizabeth Taylor (the novelist, not
the actress), and a screenplay by Ruth Sacks, herself in her 80s.
Incredibly, it represents the biggest screen role that the great
Joan Plowright (herself 77) has ever had, and it's little
surprise she has won the AARP award as actress of the year. Among
the regulars in the Claremont dining room, there is that minute
scrutiny inmates of such establishments always carry out, because
of boredom, jealousy, or simple curiosity. All I really miss are
complaints about the food. I recall my aunt Mary O'Neill sadly
surveying her dinner at a retirement home and complaining: "How
am I expected to eat this, Rog? Sliced chicken, mashed potatoes
and cauliflower. It's all white, honey! It needs carrots." "Mrs.
Palfrey at the Claremont" has a parabola that is not startling.
Mrs. Palfrey will undergo some disappointments and surprises, and
Ludovic will learn a life lesson or two, and we accept all that
because it comes with the territory. The movie is a delight, in
way --ROGER EBERT May 5-2006
The tale of an unlikely friendship between an elderly widow and a
young writer, "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" is an endearing,
deceptively simple story. Like helmer Dan Ireland's previous (and
very different) films, "Mrs. Palfrey" excels at presenting a
relationship unfurling. Pic's debt to "Harold and Maude" is clear
-- one character, eyeing the friendship, even mentions that
classic comedy by name -- but this is a far gentler film, a
low-key drama with comedic undertones that will appeal to older
auds, arthouse patrons, and Joan Plowright fans. When Mrs.
Palfrey (Plowright) arrives at London's Claremont Hotel
(sporting, in a delicious homage, Celia Johnson's hat from "Brief
Encounter"), she announces under her breath, "I had expected
something quite different." In fact, her stay at the
senior-oriented residence hotel is nothing like she anticipated.
Having relocated from Scotland to be near her 26-year-old
grandson Desmond (Lorcan O'Toole), Mrs. Palfrey soon faces a host
of questions from well-meaning but nosy fellow residents. Where
is Desmond, wonders Mrs. Arbuthnot (Anna Massey), among others,
and when will he be coming to visit? But Desmond fails to return
Mrs. Palfrey's many calls. Just as she is about to retreat into
loneliness, she stumbles and falls outside the flat of aspiring
scribe Ludovic "Ludo" Meyer (Rupert Friend). Meyer treats her
wounds, and a friendship begins. In their ensuing conversations,
it's clear that each fills a void for the other, and that these
two lonely souls have much more in common that meets the eye.
Ludo even agrees to pass himself off as Mrs. Palfrey's grandson
during a visit to the Claremont. Some situational comedy follows,
especially when the real Desmond finally shows up and Mrs.
Palfrey tries to pass him off as her accountant. But pic's best
moments are those in which the friendship of Mrs. Palfrey and
Ludo grows into a deep bond. One scene in particular, in which
Ludo serenades her with an impromptu version of "For All We
Know," is beautifully directed. Mrs. Palfrey inadvertently plays
matchmaker for Ludo when she recommends her favorite film, "Brief
Encounter," to him, and, at the video store, Ludo collides with
another customer, Gwendolyn (Zoe Tapper of "Stage Beauty"), who
becomes his girlfriend. Plowright is cast here in one of her best
roles in years. So often relegated to dotty supporting perfs, she
carries this pic squarely on her shoulders as the proud, private
Mrs. Palfrey. And, she's surprisingly well-matched by Friend as
the kindly young writer. Friend joins a list of young actors
shepherded by Ireland, including Renee Zellweger, Thomas Jane and
Emmy Rossum; with his strapping looks and ample talent, Friend
can expect bigger roles ahead. Final act is unexpectedly dark and
poignant, but also offers hope and misty optimism. The entire
film has a retro look and feel that is especially evident in its
costumes and settings. Pic also features also a rich,
evocative score by Steven Barton. --Variety
It would be easy to overpraise a film like Mrs. Palfrey at the
Claremont. There's a wealth of sentimental, sad scenes, enacted
by old pros like Plowright and Massey and Lang, that are
ruthlessly calculated to tug at the heartstrings, and which
suggest a better film in your memory and in your heart than what
was actually on the screen. So let's not do that; let's give the
film the proper respect it deserves. Mrs. Palfrey at the
Claremont is a pleasant, poignant, though familiar fable, simply
presented, and touchingly acted. No more; no less. Final
Thoughts: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont is a shameless little
sentimental piece that boasts a wonderful, tender performance by
Joan Plowright. She lets us see a character we never see on the
movie screens anymore: a fully functioning, fully emotional,
vibrant, caring, intelligent older person in a lead role. And for
that, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont gets my recommendation. If
the movie blows the chance to be something more than just an at
times affecting escapist fantasy, well, so what? It still lets us
see a total pro in action, giving one of the best performances of
her career. I recommend Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.
--DVDTalk.com