The Young Visiters (2003)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Simply Perfect

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I came to this sideways from the original novella, which was an absolute hoot. The film was a wonderful adaptation, pulling dialog directly from little Daisy's masterwork and adding to it in the same flavor. At once absurd and moving, it's the slightly wobbly story of an ordinary man who aspires to a higher station and the pretty girl desperate to hobnob among the nobility herself. They embark together, yet separately, and manage to achieve most of their ambitions, but not quite all they'd hoped. The characters are vivid and portrayed by top talent in Jim Broadbent, Lyndsey Marshal, Hugh Laurie, and Bill Nighy. They're all a bit dim-witted and bombastic, but you really feel for their ineptness. It's Broadbent's show—altho he has to fight off Nighy at times as the drunken, roguish earl. Simultaneously insightful (princes are ordinary people too) and oblivious (Ethel spends an awful lot of time alone with men she barely knows), The Young Visiters is both children's literature for adults and adult literature for children.

mikmiki, kindly keep your religious commentary to yourself. It has no place in a movie review. Thank you.This is one of the most charming movies I've seen lately. I tried to get into the book, several times, but found it too twee. Which is why I'm grateful for this film. More reasons to be grateful: Bill Nighy (whom I hadn't seen in anything other than "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest") and especially the incomparable Hugh Laurie tarten it up just enough. Glorious period sets, costumes and landscapes. Makes you feel with good cause and certainty that there will indeed always be an England. Especially in the movies.Just delightful.

I just viewed the enjoyable movie on DVD. I think JM Barrie is a clever man. He is a very talented, non-egotistical writer, who could,if he so desired, transform a little girls writing, into a work of art, with a few nip-n-tucks. Maybe the little girl of nine wrote every word or maybe Barrie gave it the magic touch of a master? It is a story of make believe.In life ... we will all believe, what we wish to be-lie-ve. The human intellect can and does invent philosophy that over a period of time becomes facts of life. Perhaps a Barrie like figure (with a long beard) was around 5000 years ago when someone (I forget the Name?) burned down an idol factory and discovered one God?In Love & Joy Michael Levy

Mr Alfred Salteena, "an elderly gentleman of forty-two", an ironmonger by trade, meets a young lady, Miss Ethel Monticue, on a train and promises to introduce her to the royals and nobles of his acquaintance if she comes to stay with him. What he doesn't tell her is that the sum total of his acquaintances is one, Lord Bernard Clark, who lives in a remote castle surrounded by portraits of his ancestors. Alfred engineers an invitation to stay with Lord Clark and Ethel is beside herself with excitement. Alfred soon realises that Bernard is much more the type of man Ethel is looking for, since he is after all a real Lord. Alfred wants to learn to be more suitable, and with Bernard's help, he begins training at Crystal Palace. The training regime is far from easy and some of the funniest and at the same time most poignant scenes are of Alfred's attempts to get it right. Things don't go according to plan, but it all turns out moderately all right in the end. No spoilers here, though. You'll just have to watch the film! The movie is a delight. If you like fairytales with a twist, you will enjoy the wonderful recreations of 9-year-old Daisy Ashford's idea of what the world looks like. And if you're a language person like me, you will be tickled by the dialogue. At 9 years old, Daisy Ashford must have been either an absolute darling or a real pain in the butt! Either way she created some very lovable characters and wrote a gem of a story.