This is a review of the film adaption of A Village Affair and not the book, which I have not read, but understand is a better product.
A Village Affair sat on my TV table over a year before being viewed. It was tough going.
Sophie Ward plays bored and frustrated housewife and mother Alice Jordan who moves to a small English village with her husband and three children. This village is the kind of place where everybody inexplicably knows everybody else's business. The kind of place where if you drive off the highway and drive through town to get gas, everyone on the street turns to stare as you pass.
Alice's dull life is livened by the arrival of Clodagh Unwin, played by Kerry Fox. A free spirited native returning home after a failed love affair in New York. Feigning interest in her husband, Clodagh's real desire is Alice. Friendship turns to love and the two soon become lovers.
Near the end I began to understand the core of the writer's intentions. To see it, you have to peel away the story elements like an onion. First, the Villagers. These people act as if it's the mid 60s instead of the 90s. Suspicious for no reason, intolerant, suspecting things with no evidence. Next, the families, including a brother who appears only to expose the lovers with no reason and parents who abandon Clodagh when she needs them most. In fact, if filmed today, the movie would be ridiculed and might be considered offensive because nearly all of the supporting characters are so very intolerant and say so.
Anyway, this leaves Clodagh and Alice who really do love each other. Although it's soon apparent, the most passionate feelings belong to Clodagh. Alice realizes she has become the obsession of her lover and worried about losing custody of her children decides to give up her relationship. This brings Clodagh to what amounts to a emotional breakdown. This does not deter Alice, who in the end, leaves the village and her lover.
To me, Alice has left behind a broken woman and sold out her own feelings. Clodagh had been in a bad relationship overseas. One can only wonder how she acted during and after the breakup. Leaving the final question. Did Alice escape a life she found suffocating and or a obsessive relationship or did she turn her back on the love of her life.
Perhaps the answer is in the book. It's sure not on screen. 4/10.
A Village Affair sat on my TV table over a year before being viewed. It was tough going.
Sophie Ward plays bored and frustrated housewife and mother Alice Jordan who moves to a small English village with her husband and three children. This village is the kind of place where everybody inexplicably knows everybody else's business. The kind of place where if you drive off the highway and drive through town to get gas, everyone on the street turns to stare as you pass.
Alice's dull life is livened by the arrival of Clodagh Unwin, played by Kerry Fox. A free spirited native returning home after a failed love affair in New York. Feigning interest in her husband, Clodagh's real desire is Alice. Friendship turns to love and the two soon become lovers.
Near the end I began to understand the core of the writer's intentions. To see it, you have to peel away the story elements like an onion. First, the Villagers. These people act as if it's the mid 60s instead of the 90s. Suspicious for no reason, intolerant, suspecting things with no evidence. Next, the families, including a brother who appears only to expose the lovers with no reason and parents who abandon Clodagh when she needs them most. In fact, if filmed today, the movie would be ridiculed and might be considered offensive because nearly all of the supporting characters are so very intolerant and say so.
Anyway, this leaves Clodagh and Alice who really do love each other. Although it's soon apparent, the most passionate feelings belong to Clodagh. Alice realizes she has become the obsession of her lover and worried about losing custody of her children decides to give up her relationship. This brings Clodagh to what amounts to a emotional breakdown. This does not deter Alice, who in the end, leaves the village and her lover.
To me, Alice has left behind a broken woman and sold out her own feelings. Clodagh had been in a bad relationship overseas. One can only wonder how she acted during and after the breakup. Leaving the final question. Did Alice escape a life she found suffocating and or a obsessive relationship or did she turn her back on the love of her life.
Perhaps the answer is in the book. It's sure not on screen. 4/10.