“the bookshop” movie review

You just have to put the word “book” in a title and I’m sold. So, of course, I was going to find something to love about The Bookshop, whether or not it was actually a good movie.

Sadly, it’s not actually a good movie — it’s just an okay movie — but Bill Nighy and Emily Mortimer can heroically save even the weakest script. Add 14-year-old Honor Kneafsey, who, to me, steals the show, and I’m fine with it being just okay.

In this slow-moving British period piece, Emily Mortimer plays Florence Green, a widow who moves to a sleepy coastal town in England to open a bookshop in an old abandoned house. It’s the 1950s, though, and outsiders — especially those who would be considered liberal elites today — are simply not welcome.

Socialite Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson in a role that makes me want to punch her in the face, which means she’s great, as always) makes that clear from the minute the two women meet.

You see, Violet has decided she wants to turn that old house into an arts center — not because she’s some big arts lover but because she doesn’t want Florence taking attention away from her, and she wants to show her power. She tries to talk Florence out of her dream project, acting concerned and warning her about the house’s drafts and leaks. “Why don’t you think it over?” she suggests, which is civilized English code for “Get out of town or I will make your life hell.”

But Florence has her heart set on the bookshop so, nevertheless, she persists.

She carefully selects books to send to Edmund Brundish (Nighy), a reclusive widower and avid reader, who falls in love with Fahrenheit 451 and Ray Bradbury and, quite possibly, Florence herself. The scenes with the two of them were some of my favorites, and I would have liked to have seen more.

She also hires Christine, a young, local girl (Kneafsey), to help her part-time, and their conversations are revealing and fascinating. “You’re too bloody nice,” Christine tells her, and she’s right. When the townspeople go low, she continues to go high.

Although I couldn’t stand most of the residents of this provincial town, the movie does make its point that the people who could stand to become more educated are the ones who usually fight against it the most. And the ending did surprise me.

I’m definitely interested in reading Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel upon which The Bookshop is based now. Because, as even Florence would probably agree, the book is almost always better than the movie.