A search for some rare books leads aspiring Manhattan writer Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) to contact London-based antiquarian bookseller Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins). So begins a loyal business relationship quickly turned friendship spanning post-WWII to the late'60s. Based on a memoir and subsequent play, this lightly charming and ultimately moving 1986 film shows its stage origins with dialogue often told through letters read in voiceover (with occasional asides made directly to the camera), but Hopkins and Bancroft are terrific as the two bibliophiles drawn by their mutual interest though doomed to never actually meet, let alone consummate their sublimated love for each other. Presented in full screen format (unfortunately), the stripped down disc contains no extras. Still, this is recommended. (T. Rich)
84 Charing Cross Road
Columbia TriStar, 99 min., PG, DVD: $24.95 Volume 17, Issue 5
84 Charing Cross Road
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