Enchanted April

 1/4

Starring: Josie Lawrence, Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Polly Walker, Alfred Molina, Jim Broadbent, Michael Kitchen

Rated PG for Some Mild Language

My God, this movie was boring.  When people who haven't seen a Merchant/Ivory movie imagine a Merchant/Ivory movie, this is the kind of movie they are thinking of.  It's a stuffy, posh, inert film where almost nothing happens.  I would get more entertainment looking at a blank wall.

The film takes place shortly after The Great War.  The weather outside is miserable, the nation is reeling from the conflict, and Lottie Wilkins (Lawrence) is at her wit's end.  Her piggish, controlling husband Mellersh (Molina) treats her as if she is no better than her servant.  That's when she sees an ad in the local paper advertising a month long getaway in an Italian castle.  Observing that Rose Arbuthnot (Richardson) is also eyeing the ad, Lottie begs her on impulse to go on vacation with her.  After a while, she agrees.  To share expenses, they enlist two other women to go along: the prim and proper Mrs. Fisher (Plowright) and the wealthy, liberated Caroline Desire (Walker).  Soon their husbands join them.

That's it.  That's the movie.  The lack of any sort of compelling conflict might be forgivable if the characters were interesting, but they're not.  Everyone here is defined by a single characteristic.  Each one is running from something, you see, and the vacation allows them to solve their problems.  For Lottie, Rose, and their husbands, it's a chance to unwind and reconnect (this would be fine if the men weren't such bastards, but that's just another of the film's miscalculations).  Mrs. Fisher gets the chance to break out of the brittle, aloof widow she has lived her life as.  And Caroline finds that money and glamour have not eased the hurt of losing her husband in the war and jumps at the chance to run away.

The fact that this movie is top heavy with talent only makes this film more mind-boggling.  I haven't seen Josie Lawrence before, but the cast is a who's who of British character actors.  They do what they can, but they aren't given anything to work with.  The characters are flat and the dialogue is worthy of a soap opera.  Only Polly Walker is memorable, but that's because it's impossible to muzzle her charisma and mischief.  Sadly, she has the least amount of screen time.  The film might have worked better had it concentrated more on Caroline.

At 95 minutes, "Enchanted April" overstays its welcome.  I have nothing against slow-moving pictures or minimalist storylines on principle, but a movie must have something to engage me.  This movie does not.  The characters, save for Caroline, are boring.  The pacing is beyond sluggish.  And I didn't give a damn about anyone in this movie.

Recommended only as a sleep aid.

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