... Say no more! The Mack just LURVES her! Unfortunately in Relative Values she does not sing, or indeed, single handedly run a household with children wearing green curtains but hey, you can’t have everything. She is more ‘Mary Poppins’ in this – very much the lady of the household and holding ... Read review
1950's England. Nigel the eligible earl Of Marshwood announces his engagement to the ... more
beautiful Miranda Frayle. Nigel's mother takes the news with a stiff upper lip but privately she's appalled to hear her son and heir is to marry of all things a Ho...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
1950's England. Nigel, the eligible earl Of Marshwood, announces his engagement to the ... more
beautiful Miranda Frayle. Nigel's mother takes the news with a stiff upper lip but privately she's appalled to hear her son and heir is to marry, of all things, a Ho...
Drawing on work in science studies, gender theory, critical race studies, postmodernism, ... more
and anthropology, this title includes essays which offer a radical revisioning of kinship and kinship theory. It assesses the implications for kinship of such phenomena as blood transfusions, adoption across national borders, and the reproductive technologies.
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Advantages: family movie, funny, frolics Disadvantages: not alot
...LURVES her! Unfortunately in Relative Values she does not sing, or indeed, single handedly run a household with children wearing green curtains but hey, you can’t have everything. She is more ‘Mary Poppins’ in this – very much the lady of the household and holding her family together in that prim and proper English way! You just feel you can always rely on Julie in a crisis!
This film has a great cast – Jeanne Tripplehorn plays Miranda ... ...immaculate and wearing red lipstick and nail varnish, torn between her boring English fiancé and her exciting ex lover. Billy Baldwin plays a bit of a clown – determined to win his lady back and becoming the centre of attention with the local girl guides in the village when his sports car roars up Lady Marshwood’s drive to claim his woman. The residents can’t believe their luck at having two American film stars in their village!
Picture this. 1953 England. News of Nigel, Earl of Marshwood’s, engagement to a Hollywood star, Miranda Frayle breaks. Nigel’s mother, Felicity (Julie Andrews) tries not to let this disappoint her – she wanted better things for her son. Peter (Colin Firth), Nigel’s cousin, tries to calm Felicity down. She's throwing a party – but the older members of the village won’t let Felicity forget that Nigel (Edward Atherton) is marrying ‘beneath him’.
As Felicity prepares to meet her son’s fiancee, the whole household starts to make plans for his return home. Moxie (Sophie Thompson), Felicity’s devoted maid, tries to give her notice in and, after further investigation, it is revealed that Miranda Frayle is actually Moxie’s sister! They haven’t seen each other for 20 years.
Between Creswell the butler, (Stephen Fry) and Lady Marshwood, they cook up a plan so that Moxie becomes ‘an equal’ to her famous sister.
Meanwhile Hollywood actor Don Lucas (William Baldwin), jumps on a plane to win back his beloved Miranda …
And that’s the basic outline of the plot! I can’t really give too much away as at just under one and a half hours long, that would be spoiling the rest of the film.
* What I thought *
Firstly – hello! Julie Andrews is in this film. Say no more! The Mack just LURVES her! Unfortunately in Relative Values she does not sing, or indeed, single handedly run a household with children wearing green curtains but hey, you can’t have everything. She is more ‘Mary Poppins’ in this – very much the lady of the household and holding her family together in that prim and proper English way! You just feel you can always rely on Julie in a crisis!
This film has a great cast – Jeanne Tripplehorn plays Miranda Frayle and really shines as the Hollywood star, always looking immaculate and wearing red lipstick and nail varnish, torn between her boring English fiancé and her exciting ex lover. Billy Baldwin plays a bit of a clown – determined to win his lady back and becoming the centre of attention with the local girl guides in the village when his sports car roars up Lady Marshwood’s drive to claim his woman. The residents can’t believe their luck at having two American film stars in their village!
There’s lots of funny moments in the film, Colin Firth is very laid back as cousin Peter and is Lady Marshwood’s constant companion. He sits back and watches as the household is turned upside down with Moxie’s transformation. This is along the lines of ‘My Fair Lady’ – complete with Moxie's ‘posh’ new accent. I very much enjoyed Firth's performance and his dry sense of humour.
Stephen Fry as the butler trying to keep the peace within the household is another character worth mentioning. He seems to be the shoulder to cry on and all round ‘Mr Nice Guy’ (another smooth talking bar steward role perchance?!)
* Overall *
This was a very likeable film with some amusing lines especially from Colin Firth. A great cast makes this very watchable and I loved the fact that it had a mixture of English people and Americans. Also some very pretty countryside included!
This film is about how Hollywood stars transform a small Kent village and more notably Lady Marshwood’s home and lifestyle.
Five stars from me. It’s a good family film that everyone can enjoy. More or less everything you can hope for in a movie – a bit of romance, confusion, dressing up, glamourous people .. and Julie Andrews! Heaven.
* Extras *
Play Trailer Audio and subtitles – English subtitles and director’s commentary Chapter selection
* Other information *
85 mins approx rated PG Director – Eric Styles Based on a play by Noel Coward
Price £5.99 www.play.com (I got it free with Eve magazine a few months ago!)
Advantages: Looks lush and colourful Disadvantages: Some actors were miscast; all a bit old-fashioned and unconvincing
My DVD of “Relative Values” came as a free gift with some magazine or other.
I hadn’t heard of the movie at all, and it languished unplayed for a good few months.
The cover claims that it’s “outstandingly funny”. And it boasts a good cast – with names like Colin Firth, Stephen Fry, Julie Andrews, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. So I last decided to give at a go.
I found it very tedious, and too slow. I began to lose interest in the characters and the ... ...movie out.
Overall, I thought it was very dull, superficial and not even very much fun. As for “outstandingly funny” – well, perhaps I’d go so far as to say it was mildly funny.
I’m not sure if I can easily pinpoint why I didn’t like “Relative values” – it’s not just that it’s not a very deep movie – but I think it may partly be its tone. Generally, it reminded me partly of a Merchant Ivory movie, yes (which I’m sure was the intention of the film ...
rsmith 09.12.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Relative Values (DVD)
Advantages: the characters are great Disadvantages: can't think of any
this is the funniest movie i have ever seen. i love peter (colin firth). he is so halarios and i love it when he is drunk. julie andrews was great. i love how she can play so many different personalities. i think she is absolutely amazing. i love the whole idea of it and how well the actors work together. i think it could have been longer like the movie is based over about three days. i think it could have been about a week or two or three. i love ...
deb409tiger 12.06.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Relative Values (DVD)
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) and the animated intro advertised on the case is really just an interactive menu. The running time of the movie is only 107 minutes, and the extras add no more than 20 minutes in total, which makes the DVD a relatively poor value purchase.
I was wondering whether I was expecting just a bit too much from The Gift – hype can be a bad thing, and I may have anticipated this just a bit too much. It’s certainly not a bad film – it’s just not as good as I was expecting. The DVD is certainly not good value for money – one for rental only I would say. ...
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, ever since then it has enjoyed huge popularity, always maintaining a place in the standard opera house repertory around the world. There are several top notch recordings of the piece, as well as a handful of DVDs, but this particular DVD stands out as a "must buy" for anyone wanting to add the opera to their DVD collection, or indeed to rent as a great introduction to a very special opera.
Plot:
This is a really truncated and simplified description of the plot, simply to relate it to the production values of this particular DVD. There is an absolutely first class synopsis of the story in the accompanying brochure to this DVD which is probably the best and clearest summary that I've come across - providing lots of detail and I'd definitely recommend anyone coming new to the opera to read it before watching the DVDs.
In ...
"...Witty....A romantic comedy that gently tweaks the aristocracy..." (Box Office, p.170, 01/11/2000)
"...The pleasures are in the performances....[Andrews is] a gracious vision in blue and green chiffon..." (Sight and Sound, p.52, 01/07/2000)
DVD Description
Dame Andrews plays the aristocratic matriarch of an upper class British family whose eldest son (Atterton) causes an uproar when he announces his engagement to Miranda (Tripplehorn), a Hollywood starlet. The family is even more appalled when it is learned that she is the sister of the house maids. Luckily, Mr. Baldwin shows up from Hollywood to profess his love for Miranda and to try and woo her away from the English Lord and his stuffy family. An extremely witty farce, adapted from a play by the inimitable Noel Coward.
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