Fans of offbeat British humor will gobble up this BBC production, an elegantly silly and piquantly observant social satire that boasts stunning insight into both the romantic games people play and the snobbery of late-Victorian England. And here's the kicker: the story was written--with clueless abandon and an unwittingly clear-eyed perspective on the world--by a nine-year-old girl in 12 days. Seriously. Little Daisy Ashford wrote the novel upon which the film is based in 1890, and the book hasn't been out of print since. By turns bizarre--a Terry Gilliam-esque surreality brings alive Ashford's delightful flights of fancy, from singing train conductors to housemaids who get blown away by storms--and charmingly naive, this is the tale of two "elderly" men, fortysomethings Alfred Salteena (Jim Broadbent) and Lord Bernard Clark (Hugh Laurie), who are competing for the hand of young Ethel Monticue (Lyndsey Marshal). What might have been fluffy tripe ends up as sublime comedy performed by a superb cast; Laurie and Broadbent, in particular, are at the top of their games, each deploying a deadpan minimalism, in which tiny gestures become outrageous, and subdued emotions become tantrums, effectively seducing us into a droll netherworld of thwarted passion, social climbing, and ridiculous top hats. Highly recommended. (M. Johanson)
The Young Visiters, or, Mr. Salteena's Plan
BBC, 90 min., not rated, DVD: $22.98 Volume 20, Issue 2
The Young Visiters, or, Mr. Salteena's Plan
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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