Albatross (2012)

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Thus it is in this story. Jessica Brown Findlay is Emelia, and her last name is Conan Doyle. She fancies herself as the great granddaughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes character. This is her albatross, she expects great things of herself as a writer, but at 17 (actually in her 20s) she seems to be out of sorts, not happy with her writing or where her life is taking her.She needs to earn a living. Both her parents have died, she stays with her nice older grandparents. So she takes a menial job cleaning rooms at a local inn owned by a writer who once had a famous book some 20 years earlier.But there she meets the daughter of that family, Felicity Jones (actually in her 20s also) as 17-yr-old Beth, who is a rules- follower, unlike Emelia who knows no rule. They form a bond of sorts which eventually is strained when Emelia flirts with then begins an affair with Beth's author dad. Conveniently for this film, the age of consent in England is 16. Also the Isle of Man, where this was filmed.So the arc of the story involves Emelia getting the albatross off her neck, and the start was finding out her real last name was Doyle, and not actually related to the famous author. Interesting and often funny movie. I found it on Netflix streaming movies.

A seaside inn is run the Fischer family, consisting of two daughters and their parents. Their lives are in a rut as they mark time, day to day.When we first meet Emilia, she is lighting firecrackers and dropping them in a barrel, inciting action by the local police. She is an irreverent 17-year-old who likes to break the rules and shake things up. When she is introduced into the Fischer household, she is like a spark that lights a fuse.The actions that follow are sometimes predictable, sometimes not. But the result of this volatile situation is what the viewer must wait for.The film's title is a reference to Coleridge's Albatross; the film reveals how it applies differently to three of the characters. It is up to the viewer to determine in what other ways the title refers to burdens the characters must bear.Albatross is a delightful film. The story is charming even as it is fraught with dangers. The acting is top notch. I would not change one performer. The background music ranges, appropriately, from whimsical to poignant. This British film is a drama filled with comedy. And it shows how life's resolutions sometimes come from tragic moments.

There are some characters in this film, there really are, and they are all so very different, and, at the same time, very alike. Emilia, at times quite brilliantly played by Jessica Brown Findlay, is the superficially confident teen who commands the scene and will not be put down easily. Beth, well played by Felicity Jones, is the girl who likes the rebel instinct of Emilia, but is waiting on a place at Oxford. The two girls, and their families, live in a fictitious English south coast town. Beth's parents own a hotel/guest house proceeds from the only book her father has successfully authored. There is much friction between Beth's parents.The plot develops around the friendship between Emilia and Beth, and then between Emilia and Beth's father, and takes us down a number of diversionary routes until we get to the revelations that make the story tie up its loose ends.Not entirely satisfactory or convincing as a film but it has some promising acting from its younger stars. Well worth a rental.

This film depicts a dysfunctional family owning a Bed and Breakfast house in a coastal British town. The father wrote a wildly successful novel many years ago, and the family lives off his early success. He has had writer's block for quite some time since. His wife resents him and maybe even hates him. Is it because he is still the star and she gave up her acting career to be his wife? What a b-word! She ought to be thankful for whatever good has come their way.So what if he hasn't done much since his novel? He is still the husband and the dad, and his money afforded a comfortable lifestyle. If there is something about him that his wife and daughter resent, let's here what it is, besides his writer's block. I need a clear explanation.We do see a glimpse of it late in the film, when he verbalizes the fact that he doesn't really respect his daughter's blandness, so maybe I am overlooking that.Yes, like other reviewers have stated, that Jessica Brown has talent, and will undoubtedly have some future acting success, or popularity. She pulled off a character with at least two dimensions, and did it well.Even if his wife wasn't such a "shrew," as they called her during the film, it is hard for a man to resist the attention of a young, adoring woman, as they aptly depict here. A little attention, gives him the self-esteem needed to rouse him out of his funk. I can relate.This is definitely not a comedy. It is a coming-of-age film first and a mid-life crisis film secondly. Good scenery, poignant interaction between grandparents and granddaughter, and just the right amount of comedy and sex.