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Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786302801064 Format: Color, NTSC ISBN: 6302801060 Label: Sony Pictures Languages: Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Sony Pictures Release Date: January 19, 1999 Running Time: 116 minutes Studio: Sony Pictures Theatrical Release Date: 1988-01 Editorial Review: Amazon.com: This sad and quirky movie by Bill Forsyth (Local Hero), set in the 1950s, is a faithful adaptation of Marilynne Robinson's luminous book. Two orphaned girls (newcomers Sara Walker and Andrea Burchill) fall in love with their happy-go-lucky Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti) when she comes to live with them. However, the girls discover their quintessentially eccentric aunt is more crazy than idiosyncratic. She has a lifetime supply of newspapers and tin cans, and she doesn't like to turn the lights on in the house. As all crazy aunts are likely to have, she also adopts a large collection of stray cats. She carries crackers in her pocket for the imaginary children in the woods and disappears into the mountains for days on end. This shunning of responsibility has a profound effect on the sisters' own relationship. Ruthie (the eldest and narrator of the story) is a tall and gangly teenager, never fitting in at school, and badly wanting to emulate Sylvie's free-spiritedness. But the younger Lucille longs for stability and the need to belong. She tries to help her older sister, but is met with strong opposition from Ruthie. Lucille decides to go it alone and Ruthie, at last, finds her Aunt Sylvie both literally and emotionally. Unfortunately the townspeople of Fingerbone (a fictitious town beautifully filmed in British Columbia) decide it's time Aunt Sylvie got her act together. But Ruthie and Sylvie cannot conform, and so they escape the grasp of Fingerbone in a surprising and delightful manner. It's in this climax that Forsyth's unique eye for capturing strangely beautiful details opens wide. What Robinson does with language in her book Forsyth mirrors with poetic images. Lahti is simply wonderful as Aunt Sylvie, as are Walker and Burchill as Ruthie and Lucille. A graceful film and offbeat story. --Samantha Allen Storey Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Where's the DVD???Great movie from a great book, why is this not available on DVD? You can get any piece of garbage Sly Stallone ever made in multiple formats, but not this little gem. What a world. Rating:  - Seemless, Enjoyable Drama"Housekeeping" is an excellent film adaptation of the novel by Marilynne Robinson. It is engaging, seemlessly edited and beautifully photographed. Some characters and scenes have their humorous sides, but this movie is essentially a drama, a story of the extreme impact the arrival of an unconventional aunt has on two sisters in a small, 1950's northwestern town. Christine Lahti gives an Oscar-worthy portrayal of the aunt, and the supporting cast is strong, as well. The setting and time period ... Read More Rating:  - Housekeeping (original movie) EXCELLENT - VHS - not so goodMy favorite movie of all-time was Housekeeping which I saw in the Quad Cinema in New York many years ago. I was very disappointed with the VHS version, however, which cut out some of the most tender and magical moments. It made me feel he just did not even get the movie at all, or even care to. Rating: - Running On Empty*** This comment may contain spoilers *** The movie tells the story of two young girls whom their mom brought to her home town in the Pacific Northwest and committed suicide at the same day. The girls stay with their proper and respectable grandmother but after her death, their aunt, eccentric, literally out of this world Sylvie arrived after long time to take care of her nieces. There is a mystery behind Sylvie's smile, behind her strange for the most population of the small town behavior ... Read More Rating: - A perfect film ... in danger of disappearing foreverIf I were marooned on a desert island with a choice of five films to watch for the rest of eternity, this would easily make my list. It's a superb (and surprisingly restrained) adaptation by Scottish director Bill Forsyth of Marilynne Robinson's novel. The film, which like the novel is both darkly humorous and desperately sad, obviously posed a dilemma for Sony Pictures, who ultimately chose to market it as a "wacky comedy" about a "wacky aunt". This trivialized both the message of the film, ... Read More |
