Note: If you are looking for the soundtrack to Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, the producer reported to movieEVERYday.com on 30 May 2006 that is it currently being mixed. Please check back here for updates on the its release.
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Review #100 of 365
Film: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont [NR] 108 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $14.00
Where Viewed: Landmark Seven Gables Theatre, Seattle, WA
When 1st Seen: 20 April 2006
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Steve and Jo S. of Oak Park, IL
Today was officially day 100 of my 365-day mission to go boldly to the movie theaters every day for a year and review the new film the next morning. I couldn’t be more thrilled to mark this ceremonial passing by honoring the delightful and enchanting film, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, with what I hope to be a splendid review and to dedicate this review quite publicly to two extremely dear friends with whom while I’ve grown apart from in distance and, to a degree, in time, I wish them both to know that they will always be in my heart and on my mind. Hopefully, it will be obvious to them both the countless reasons why this review of this wonderful film had to be dedicated to them.
Also, before I go further, and I know this will seem like a shameless plug, and I apologize upfront for that appearance, however, if you have access to the song “For All We know” as performed by the sensational Rosemary Clooney most recently re-released on the album “70 - A Seventieth Birthday Celebration” done in honor of her birthday and 20-year association with the Concord Record label, please get it ready to play on cue. If you do not, you may secure rights to it to play on your computer now from, of course iTunes™, for the mere price of $.99. It is worth every penny. Here is a link directly to it so you will not have to delay in finding it.
In 1971, the second to the last novel by the very popular English author Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (available for purchase) was published. At last, I can finally read what I am told is a truly delightful novel (recalling dear fans that I do not read books until after the movies come out--explanation embedded in my review of another brilliant English film, Pride and Prejudice). My good fortune comes thanks to Mr. Dan Ireland, coincidentally co-founder of the Seattle International Film Festival, who decided to direct this film from infancy to silver screen. What will remain a mystery to me is why this film, which I guess was technically released in a very, very limited way last November, has not been given its proper due. This is a incredible film that reached parts of my heart and soul that have been dormant since I saw and reviewed On Golden Pond for my high school newspaper, the Columbine Courier, back in the early 1980s. Filled with laughter, joy, love, and light, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont deserved (deserves?) a major theatrical release.
Starring the indomitable, Academy Award®-nominated Dame Joan Plowright in the eponymous role, the film begins with the widow Palfrey’s arrival at a hotel selected from a guide book that made it sound like a charming place for her to stay in London and learn to deal with her independence. Unfortunately, from the moment of her arrival by cab out front and her encounter with the ancient bellman who cannot seem to handle her assortment of luggage, the reality of the Claremont Hotel will bear only the slightest resemblance to the glorious guidebook description. With dinner served promptly at 7 and breakfast from 7-9, and a cast of long-time occupants to keep one company, and her own cheerful outlook on life, Sarah Palfrey will grow to find comfort from the place despite wondering aloud to the memory of her dearly departed Arthur, “What have I gotten myself into?”. I chuckled indeed at her first glance at her room described by the manager as being one of the nicest in the entire hotel, for it reminded me an awful lot of the hotel and room in which I stayed under equally false pretenses of an American Express Travel Agent rather than a faulty guidebook on my first and still only trip to London. The square footage of the room is barely equal to the size of the bed plus about 4 square feet for good measure. In any case, I, not unlike Mrs. P., ventured to London for London and not for my hotel room. As it would happen, Mr. P. quickly learns the social structure of the hotel guests and finds herself in a predicament when her grandson Desmond fails to show up and provide proof of his existence and much needed companionship for his dear grandmother. Her problems are solved and new world awakened within herself, however, when by chance on the way home from the library she trips and falls in front of the garden flat apartment of a dashingly handsome, burgeoning young writer with the impeccable manners associated most prominently with English royalty. His name is Ludovic (Rupert “Pride and Prejudice and The Libertine” Friend) Meyer; and he, after patching up her skinned knee and warming her heart with tea and real conversation, is persuaded to accept a dinner invitation at the Claremont that, when explained to her cronies back at the hotel turns into a visit from her grandson before she can set the record straight. Luckily, Ludovic is delighted to play the role of Desmond for the Claremont residents. “I am a very good actor when I need to be,” he reassures Mrs. Palfrey just before his grand entrance. Thus, is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. For, as it turns out, Ludovic has no living grandmother, and Mrs. P. may as well not have a living grandson for all that he has to do with her. Moreover, there is something, an indescribable connection, between these two souls despite their sizeable age difference. They uncover a mutual appreciation for Wordsworth, and this spins and grows into mutual admiration with Ludovic realizing that Sarah Palfrey might just be the key to unlocking his writing talent and working out a story he had been trying to write his entire life. At one point, and this is your cue to start playing “For All We Know”, the two are over at Ludovic’s flat for dinner, and he quizzes her to discover how deep their friendship is. “Favorite movie?” he asks her. “Brief Encounter,” she says and explains why. “Favorite song?” “For All We Know,” she says, “But you are too young to know that.” He picks up his guitar and sings it to her. If that moment doesn’t just make you melt, then, sorry, I don’t know what will.
On the surface, this film seems to be about intergenerational friendship, and the power it can have on helping both the youthful and the young-at-heart-and-spirit-if-not-mind-and-body. Really, though that is just the chocolate ganache on top of a decadent ice cream birthday cake from Cold Stone Creamery®. Each resident of the Claremont, including the gracefully-accepting-of-her-eventual-departing-from-this-world Mrs. Arbuthnot (Anna Massey) to the he-really-thinks-Mrs. P.’s-all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips Mr. Osborne (Robert Lang) to the zany and colorful Mrs. Post (Marcia Warren) and Mrs. Burton (Georgina Hale), each has an outlook on life that brings insight and teaches us all about dealing with growing old in a society that doesn’t really seem to care very much what happens to people as they age. As Ludovic’s and Mrs. P.’s relationship blossoms, she inadvertently helps him find the girl, Gwendolyn (Zoe Tapper), of his dreams, and then she imparts wisdom to help seal them in a lifelong bond. The struggle for approval has always eaten away at poor Ludovic as raised by his single-parent mum. Mrs. P. will help out there as well; and, in the process, teach both his mother and Ludovic the value of appreciating each person you love in every way every day. More than that, she will help us all to understand the value of preserving the wonderful memories of our lives so that we might relive them time and again. How easy it is to focus on the hardships, the bad times, the trauma and the drama, but how unfulfilling, sad, and disappointing to spend one moment of what precious little time we might have dwelling on such things. None of us knows when our time to go will arrive, therefore, we should live each moment to the fullest embedding it with all to good our souls can muster for, after all, as Rosemary Clooney says, “We come and go like a ripple on a stream.” Think about that ripple, and tomorrow, see if you too might not be able to go out and have a positive effect on the life of some one you love; or, better yet, on someone you don’t even know. Cast the person a smile, hold open a door for someone in distress, look up an old friend and send them a card out of the blue, take flowers and a book of poetry to a nursing home and brighten up the life of someone who never gets a visitor, agree to look after the neighbor’s children so they might have a night to go out as they did many years ago. Lastly, I would like to mention that Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont was dedicated by the filmmakers to all mothers and grandmothers. If one or both of your grandmothers is still around, call them / her, right away and plan a visit. Do not delay. I had the extreme honor/pleasure of getting to live with my maternal grandmother (Grandma Sweetheart) for a month some years ago when I was in graduate school, and it was one of the most wonderful experiences of my lifetime. I send her flowers and cards often out of the blue just to let her know how much she means to me. Don’t let another day pass by without taking the ones you love to watch the sunset together. This is what life is really all about.
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