[.ca] My House In Umbria

From Amazon.com:
Falling neatly into the Enchanted April and Under the Tuscan Sun category, the made-for-HBO My House in Umbria boasts lovely Italian vistas and comforting Englishness. But it begins with a note of violence: on a train rolling through the sunny countryside, a terrorist bomb detonates, killing a handful of passengers. The strangers that survive recuperate at the villa of an eccentric but kindly romance novelist, also a survivor of the blast. She's played by Maggie Smith, who bustles through the role with a pleasing mix of gin and daffodils. Chris Cooper is an uptight American who comes to the villa to pick up his orphaned niece and bristles at the bohemian atmosphere. Director Richard Loncraine maintains the melancholy mood amidst the sun-dappled gardens of Umbria, but Smith really holds the film together with her authority and slightly tipsy humor. --Robert Horton

Very touching:
This movie is very touching. It may not be the most surprising or action packed of movies, but it can touch you if you let it. So many people, all touched by the same tragedy, having to come together, and share and learn and grow together. I think you'll enjoy it.

Touching!:
I am a great Maggie Smith fan, so when I found this movie, I had to see it. I must say, in my opinion I would classify it as an "Artsy-Fartsy" movie... but in spite of that, I LOVED IT. To a certain degree, I think everyone can identify with a life full of pains and sorrows, and still being able to help out others when they are in need. This is the description of true humanity... to see past your own pains, and lend a hand to someone else. The only thing in my opinion that makes this unsuitable for pre-teens, other than excessive alcohol consumption to mask emotional pain, is that there is a quick flash of Mrs Delahuntys upper torso, at one point.

Annoyingly Bad:
I had high hopes for this movie, having fallen in love with "Under A Tuscan Sun" and hoping that "My House In Umbria" would be similar. I couldn't have been further from the truth. Quite frankly, I hated this movie. I thought Maggie Smith was pompous and incredibly annoying, particularly in her pursuit of the American which didn't seem to fit anywhere into the movie. If it's Italy you're craving do yourself a favor and rent "Under A Tuscan Sun".

Still undecided \oWarning: Includes Spoilers\c:
I am still undecided on this one. I really like Dame Maggie Smith. Initially I liked the woman she was cast as - especially the internal dialogue she had as she assessed people around her (in the intuitive, and perhaps at times, overly imaginative nature of a writer). However, I found her character grew irritating as the movie progressed. She kept pursuing Chris Cooper's character. The ruder he was to her, the more she followed him. Suddenly her intuition evaporates and she seems pathetic. There was so much more warmth and interest in the moments when she interacted with the other characters - especially the elderly gentleman who had lost his daughter. But these relationships were cut short by her increasing (and - to me - eventually irrational) obsession with River-Smith (the Chris Cooper character). The scene with him in his bedroom did not really make sense to me. Are you really going to begin to undress with someone who is being so dramatically hateful to you - no matter how drunk you are? My favorite part of the story surrounded the German man. I truly liked his character. I was shocked when he turned out to be linked to the bombing. But there was such a grace in how Dame Maggie's character was able to forgive him. And such sorrow in him as he tried to help the little girl (whose parents he realized he had taken from her). That bizarre element was the one redeeming thing for me from the movie. How easy it is to hate people you don't know. How it becomes conceivable to forgive people once you know them, once you eat with them, and they build a garden with you.

"Happiness is often an illusion.":
Wealthy Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) is traveling on the train to Milan when a bomb explodes in her compartment, killing several people. The survivors - an elderly British General, a young German man, an 8-year old American girl, and Emily - recover in the same hospital and, having nowhere to go, go to live with Emily in her large home in Umbria. The four enjoy their life together until the day that Emily's withdrawn uncle (Chris Cooper) comes to take her away. This-made-for-HBO movie has all the right ingredients to make a memorable film except one - a good script. Nothing much happens in the movie after the explosion, the quartet just luxuriates in living the good life in an elegant villa. The only character that is developed is that of Emily, and Maggie Smith gives her usual first-rate performance and is truly fascinating. But she's hampered by a plot that goes nowhere; it just wanders aimlessly looking like an Italian travelogue and then ends. The scenery is, of course, breathtaking and Smith wears a very chic wardrobe, but we have no reason to care about the characters. There is no drama or tension; the whole story proceeds in such a lackadaisical fashion that I wanted to quit watching, but hoped (in vain) that it was all leading to something worthwhile. Disappointing.