This movie is an example of how the cinematic medium can powerfully explore a mundane activity as letter writing. The movement of the characters through their activities and concerns over different times of life and across 2 physically separated cultures is smooth, subtle and engaging. The movie does not contain the bombast that many others seem to be more pre-occupied with. Rather the viewer is taken into the quiet enjoyment of human conversation and communication. And just like a good conversation, one is left with both satisfaction and longing.
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burgan620317 July 2005Lines of dialog like the one above, spoken by the energetic writer played by Anne Bancroft in "84 Charing Cross Road", appeal to those who inordinately enjoy books . And if you are one who is delighted by literary references(in books, music or movies)than this is a film that will hold great appeal for you.
Those who prefer conventional "action" will find this movie far too low-key and dull. Personally I was very involved by it. It is the type of motion picture where you find yourself wanting to enter and befriend the characters, who undoubtedly would be willing to talk with you about most anything. And for those who have actually been to London(myself included)there's the added delight of recognizing many of the locations it presents. -
Sylviastel4 June 200284 Charing Cross Road is a wonderful enchanting film about the differences and similarities between the Brits and the New Yorkers over the years. Helene Hanff really was a special writer. She gave an identity to 84 Charing Cross Road to last a lifetime. Her letter writing relationship between a bookstore and herself is one of legendary stories to become part of London and New York. Sadly, she died 5 years ago. I am sure that 84 Charing Cross Road will always remember the writer, Helene Hanff, who inspired such a legacy. Anyway the film has a wonderful cast like Anne Bancroft who is ageless in the role. Sir Anthony Hopkins as the bookseller. Dame Judi Dench as his wife and Maurice Denham in a supporting role. Also, I have been to London three more times since I wrote this review and sadly this time, I made the effort to visit 84 Charing Cross Road, sorry folks, it's a Pizza Hut and I had dinner there tonight anyway. THere is no plaque. I still think Anne Bancroft was superb now that she's gone. So has Maurice Denham since I last wrote this review. God Bless them wherever they are.
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graytart17 August 2004Whenever anyone asks me, which isn't often, I tell them this is it. And they invariably have never heard of it, which is a terrible shame.
I love the film, and advise those who love it as well that they SHOULD read the book too... and also read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, and find out what happened when Helene went to England after all those years.
And don't stop there... look up the Oxford Book of English Prose and the Oxford Book of English Verse (http://www.bartleby.com/101/), edited by the venerable Q (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), and see what inspired Helene to begin the correspondence in the first place (basically she decided to read everything Q mentioned, "unless it's fiction.") -
Boyo-210 March 2000Helene and Frank never actually say they love each other - hell, they never even meet - but they love each other in an unspoken way that people today would not understand. The movie never plays it for sappy romance; its way better than stooping to that level of convention. They are good to one another and enrich one another's life - isn't that love?
Hopkins has an amazing moment when Helene has to cancel her trip to London due to some much-needed dental work. His face shows so many things, all at once, that it really is beautiful and breaks my heart, no matter how often I see it.
For Oscar fans - this movie has four winners - Bancroft, Hopkins, Mercedes Ruehl and Judi Dench.
I am grateful that this movie got made with such care and humanity. -
vertigo_1412 April 200484 Charing Cross Road is one of my favorite movies. Based on the memoirs of Helene Hanff (the book contains the letters from which they read throughout the film), this is the story of a single New York woman named Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) who builds a forty-year friendship with some people who work in a bookstore in England. The movie begins during WWII as Helene, a writer, is searching for out-of-print books and, frustrated at the poor selection in the city's bookstores, starts writing letters to the Marx brother's bookstore in England. Through her letters, she not only becomes a frequent customer, but eventually, becomes quite close with all of the bookstore's employees. And through their letters, they share experiences over the years, which the viewer witnesses through a juxtasposition of two different cultures: American and British.
I like the technique used in this film. The interaction between Helene and her British friends occurs only through letters, so rather than have the characters write a letter and then dub what is written, eventually, the characters just face the camera and say what they would have written, with the camera cutting back and forth for each others response at times as though we suddenly become the recipient of their conversations.
The film also has a wonderful cast with Anne Bancroft as Helene, Anthony Hopkins as the generous Frank P. Doel, Judi Dench as his wife, and Mercedes Ruehl as Helene's neighbor. It is a wonderful story. -
jzappa14 September 2011I suppose liking or appreciating 84 Charing Cross Road comes down to what one goes to movies to see. This is the case with any movie, obviously, but for any number of kids disappointed by reaching into the trick-or-treat bag and coming up with a granola bar, there are some who like the granola. 84 Charing Cross Road is cinematic granola. It's no Indiana Jones or Casablanca, but that's not to say there's no sense of wonder or adventure. To some viewers, a film about the love of reading and relationship through written correspondence has that. It may not sound like it, but consider that you can't make a movie about people writing to each other and liking or disliking books unless it's about the situations they're in as they write each other, what causes them to do so, and how their passion for literature defines their lives.
The characters in this film are indeed human beings, probably more like the people watching it than is the case with most other movies. How implausibly eventful does a person's life have to be without being interesting or emotionally fulfilling? However slight the story arguably is, Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins are nevertheless deeply connected to the people it's about. Emotion and impulse on a salt-of-the-earth human level are the very wheelhouse of Bancroft. Her ability to be emotionally free and available to various nuances of feeling is key to her talent.
There is not one false moment in the whole movie. For the invariably impeccable Sir Anthony Hopkins, he gives his performance the texture of real life with the spontaneity and idiosyncrasy of every one of his transitions, every one of his reactions to every emotional event. And though her role is small, Dame Judi Dench is given the difficult task of being there for many of the emotional events in her husband Hopkins' life, and does it modestly, sparingly, realistically and completely in the daintiest handful of scenes.
I can argue in favor of 84 Charing Cross Road on a logical level, but at the same time, I still can't say there's anything profound for me to grab onto when I watch it, which is what I tend to desire from pared down human stories. The story blossoms into a chronicle of a beautiful little relationship that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives involved, my experience was that what happens is just life. No situation seems challenging enough to be anything more than the natural progression of the contact between two uneventful people. But that can also be considered a credit to the film. It seems designed to be for someone in particular, not everyone. You can maybe argue that if it were for everybody, it would then be for nobody in particular. Because it speaks to the tastes of a select audience who would be moved by this tale, and because it's thoroughly effective on that level of integrity, it's destined to be a cherished little critic-proof installment in their personal home entertainment collections. -
donjmiller18 November 2004I will not summarize the plot -- you can read others' comments for that, or, better yet, see this yourself. Classic film buffs who say that there was a Golden Age of Cinema after which all is in decline need to see this one (although I realize that 1987 probably is long enough ago to qualify as a bygone era for younger IMDb users). I would not change a thing in this production. Every member of the cast delivers the goods, the story is moving and truthful, the characters come to life and you're swept up in their lives. When you weary of car chases with explosions, language you can't repeat to your mom, cliché-ridden distortions of human relationships and humor based on normally-private bodily functions, give yourself a treat and watch this movie. If you think only hobbits can be sweet and kind and show us the Good that can reside in common folk, check out the humans in this one. If you . . . never mind, just see it.
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wezzel12 February 2002When you first take a look at the story, 84CCR hasn't much going on for it. A movie about books(even worse: old books!), for 75% told off-screen and with two stars who don't share one scene together. It's a miracle that this movie has so much impact on the viewer. The atmosphere is really tense, it's like you're in that little dusty bookstore and you really like the characters, though you don't know that much about them. Great acting by all. Hopkins, playing a character that resembles the ones he played in Shadowlands and even Remains of the Day, is impossibly convincing in his role. Anne Bancroft, although sometimes slightly over the top when she talks to the viewer, makes a great match.
Rating:8/10
Most Memorable Movie Moment: Bancroft raving on about the works of John Donne. -
tanysare9 June 2005I saw this movie in 1987, read the book, and just rented it again in memory of Anne Bancroft. It remains for me a gem-an amazingly done story. What is really amazing however-and a sad comment on where people's attentions are focused-is that in 1987 there were two movies that dealt with married men and single women. This was one of them; the other was "Fatal Attraction." What a difference! People flocked to see the latter film in which (spoilers for "F.A." here) a single urban career woman has a brief affair with a married man, tries to kill herself, tries to kill everyone else, fricassees a pet rabbit, etc. Now in "84 Charing Cross Road," the heroine's finances prevent her from crossing the ocean to actually meet the married man of her daydreams- but even if she had been able to visit England and meet him,I doubt she would have baked his children's pets or kidnapped his children. This was not,thankfully,that kind of film. This was a true story of a single career woman whose life was happy in spite of her being single. She had friends, her writing, the books she was buying and reading. We see at one point a photograph on her bureau of a man in uniform-was this a former boyfriend,a fiancé,who was killed in the war? Possibly-but the woman does not live in grief nor does she go melodramatically crazy. It's too bad that America chose to make the derivative trash that is "F.A." popular while not honoring "84 Charing Cross Road" for its depiction of a brainy adult relationship.
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sddavis6328 July 2012It was about an era long, long ago - when people used typewriters and wrote letters and couldn't order everything online. Helene (Ann Bancroft) lives in New York City and has a love for old English books, but has no way to get them. Frank (Anthony Hopkins) runs an antiquarian book shop in London, and receives a letter from Helene one day asking him for help in finding the old English books she's looking for. That simple request leads to a decades long correspondence between the two, which blossoms into a friendship (made obvious in the latter parts of the movie, when Frank's rather formal and official sounding letters start to be signed off with "Love, Frank.")
The two never meet. They just correspond across the ocean. If that doesn't sound very exciting, well, it isn't. You don't watch this for the excitement. It's a very human movie. It's neither exciting nor in many ways particularly interesting, but it comes from the heart. The "pen pal" type relationship between Helene and Frank is very touching, and one hopes throughout that somehow and at some time either Frank will come to America or Helene will go to England and the two will meet. That they didn't could have come as a letdown, and yet it really wasn't. The movie ended on the right note, as Helene finally does travel to London to see the book shop at 84 Charing Cross Road, but only after she's learned that Frank died suddenly and unexpectedly.
We see a little bit of English and American history scattered through this movie. The British election that returned Churchill to power and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (not to mention the rationing that went on in London many years after World War II.) America, by contrast, is a land of plenty, but the student riots that break out in the 60's are depicted. It was an effective way of interspersing a bit of history among Frank and Helene's relationship.
The structure of the movie perhaps meant that Hopkins and Bancroft (both excellent actors) were somewhat underused. Mostly, they narrated; reading the letters they wrote to each other while we saw background "action." But this is an effective movie, and it does touch your heart a little bit as you learn of Frank's death, and as Helene finally visits the book store. (6/10) -
CTS-127 June 2005I recently saw this film for the first time, as a chance to see an Anne Bancroft film I had not seen before. Bancroft and Hopkins are both excellent in this. And, more than almost any other film, they have to be excellent; their performances are the only thing this little film hangs on.
Everything about this film violates almost every "screenwriting 101" type rule. The two main characters communicate primarily through letters. Characters address the audience directly. There is no real conflict. Change occurs only with the natural passage of time in the characters' lives. No heroes, no villains. No romance, no violence, no adventures- just two people (one a writer, the other a rare-book dealer) living their lives and caring about how the other leads theirs.
And yet, the film works. Over the span of the 20+ years portrayed in the film, the audience gets to know and like both of the main characters, and their compatriots as well. And just getting to know them and their unique friendship makes it all worthwhile.
Also, the portrayal of the privations of the post-war U.K. of rations and food shortages is done very well. Michael Palin, amongst others, have addressed the tragicomic aspects of postwar rationing in the U.K., but in this film, it is poignant how even a poor American managed to make the entire bookstore's Christmases worthwhile with a well-timed shipment of Danish food. -
gavin694230 March 2016True story of a transatlantic business correspondence about used books that developed into a close friendship.
Roger Ebert somewhat humorously wrote, "Miss Fiske was the librarian at the Urbana Free Library when I was growing up. She never had to talk to me about the love of books because she simply exuded it and I absorbed it. She would have loved this movie. Sitting next to her, I suspect, I would have loved it, too. But Miss Fiske is gone now, and I found it pretty slow-going on my own."
That Ebert was a funny guy. As he notes elsewhere in his review, this movie is built on a very thin premise. And that is its ultimate downfall. While the movie is fun to watch, it has so little going on: basically two people corresponding about books to order. It's nice for a book lover like myself, but it did begin to wear after a while. -
boblipton11 January 2021This movie recounts the 20-year correspondence between Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank P. Doel (Anthony Hopkins), a manager of the London book store, Marks & Co, over the course of 20 years.
So how do you turn a series of letters into a movie? Well, you could show people doing the things they write about in the letters, I suppose. Instead, the performers read their letters, while performing the actions they describe. To bolster the two fine leads, there are sme supporting players, including Judy Dench, Maurice Denham, and Ian McNiece.
Despite these efforts, it remains radio with pictures..... although as a book lover myself, it seems glorious radio with pictures -
This movie is as much about books as Bull Durham is about baseball or Rocky is about boxing. It is a story about people and relationships and the myriad things that can happen while we experience this thing called life. If a wonderfully acted, beautifully written movie dealing with that theme interests you then turn off the telephone, put the kids to bed, and curl up for an entrancing experience.
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Nick-5717 October 2003A fantastic piece of work. This movie is for those who are interested in dialogue and masterful acting. The acting is impeccable and the dialogue is magnificent and very touching. Surely Anthony Hopkins deserved an AA and so did Anne Bancfroft.
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"84 Charring Cross Road" is a luscious, intelligent, delicate, epistolary love story.
It isn't for everybody. Viewers who require movies to shovel piping hot, sex-and-violence-drenched plot down their gullets won't get this movie; it will pass right over their heads.
If you are the kind of observant, sensitive person who can see someone sitting on a park bench and intuit their biography from the way they wear their scarf, hold their bodies, and read their newspaper, you will *hear* all that this movie is saying, and it will move you to tears.
Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft), is a single New Yorker, of mixed Jewish and Christian family. She is a no-nonsense lover of life, cigarettes, hard liquor, and books. She is the kind of reader that every writer dreams of writing for -- she is like a sponge, soaking up every word; she is like a bell; when an author's words strike her, she rings. She is like the very best of interlocutors. Writers dream of having a reader like this to interact in dialogue with their works.
When Hanff can't find a book she needs locally (and that she can't find a book she needs locally tells you something about her expansive tastes -- she lives in Manhattan, after all, not a shabby place to book shop), Hanff begins writing to a London book shop, Marks and Cohen, staffed by one Frank Doel. Doel meets her needs. That's in 1949. Their exchange of letters lasts decades into the future.
The film lovingly and deftly chronicles the decades' changes in fashion, not just in clothing, but also in architecture. Both Helene and Frank are living in distinctly 1949 dwellings when their exchange begins, and are living in more modern dwellings toward the end of the story. Hair styles, current events, the sound of rock music heard from a passing radio, act like clocks to remind the viewer of the passage of time in this relationship.
That chronicling, via visual cues, of the passage of time is just one of the many ways this movie communicates that may be too subtle for many viewers. What the film is saying in these details is this: these two people and their acquaintances and colleagues who participate in this correspondence, are investing time in each other in a drastically changing world. As the world spins precariously around them, from the post-WW II rationing in Britain to the introduction of the miniskirt, Helene and Frank continue to be there for each other.
There are so many other ways in which this movie tells a wondrous, rich tale that have nothing to do with conventional ways that films communicate. There are no conventional "love" scenes, or fight scenes. What there are are scenes that, in painstakingly crafted detail by painstakingly crafted detail, build up a story as rich as full fat cream.
By the end of this movie, the observant viewer will *know* Helene and Frank in a way that very few movies allow viewers to know their characters. The observant viewer will have participated in these people's real lives in a way that feels almost like watching a home movie.
Watch Frank react to being asked to participate in a conga line. Watch the joie de vivre that Helene brings to ordering gifts from a Danish catalogue. Listen to Helene talk about books. Watch Frank as he goes about the business of meeting his customer's needs.
The two "loudest" scenes in the movie are the scene in which Helene goes to a movie theater and watches "Brief Encounter," a classic film about a brief, extra-marital affair. While watching this movie, Helene fantasizes about finally visiting London. That scene, and that choice of movie, tells you much about how Helene feels about Frank. Similarly, carefully watch a scene in which Frank reads, aloud, a Yeats poem which ends, "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." There are so many movies about people who are nuts about sports. Movies about people who love guns, or war, or cars.
"84 Charring Cross Road" is the best movie I know about unbridled passion for books, for words, and the kind of intimacy that can take place when one person who loves words makes contact with another who shares, or at least appreciates, that passion.
If you don't get this movie, I really think you can become a better, more sensitive, more aware person by watching it again, and trying to "hear" all it says. To the person who really listens, "84 Charring Cross Road" is one of the richest movies I know.
PS: the film is perfectly cast, and every performance is spot on. Anthony Hopkins has never been more sympathetic. Anne Bancroft was born to play Helene Hanff. Judi Dench, Mercedes Ruehl, Oscar winners all around -- how can you go wrong? -
nycritic9 March 2007Had the creators and the producers of 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD decided to make this a more experimental movie I believe they would have succeeded because the nature of the relationship between Helen Hanff and Frank Doel suggests a Brechtian tableau. Instead, a more direct view was the result, and this is the movie that made it into theatres. However, it's a well-made feature, with Anthony Hopkins as usual portraying a man with a deep inner world that does not include his wife played by Dame Judi Dench (who back then was mainly known in her country and barely known here), and Anne Bancroft playing a woman with a singular temperament without going overboard or chewing scenery. One glaring minus is the repeated use of voice-overs, but that I believe would have been the only way to construct a narrative of what was mainly two decades worth of correspondence. It, overall, is a hard sell, but one that deserves a peek even if to complete both leads' filmographies. On a side note, this movie was produced by Mel Brooks, who also produced David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN, a film which also starred Bancroft and Hopkins who also did not share significant screen time with each other.
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I first saw this movie before I read the book it is based on. I usually see films based on books in this way, but this time, I wish I had read the book first. There are letters in the book that should have appeared in the movie to flesh it out a bit more. Even so, it is one of the most affecting movies I have ever seen. It starts with a middle aged woman in a plane flying to London (Anne Bancroft). When she gets to the place she has been seeking, it is an abandoned storefront. She looks around wistfully as the first letter is read in her voice in the background. Magically, the film transports us back to the late 40's in New York, and to the correspondence between a woman living there and the man who is the manager of a bookshop at the title address in London (Sir Anthony Hopkins). The letters are read with great warmth and style, and the opening up in the film is well done and appropriate to the story. As the years advance, we are caught up in both of these people's lives and their correspondence. Due to events that look contrived in the movie (but make more sense in the book), Helene Hanff leads a life of the lower middle class and much as she would like to, there is no chance for her to afford the trip to London. So London is brought to her in both the great books she buys from the bookshop and by reading about the lives of Frand Doel and his family, and the other people who work at the bookstore. One of the most affecting scenes deals with the letters she receives from the other employees thanking her for the food parcels she sends to the employees for holidays. I look something like Bill Humphries, the cataloger, and his scene with his Great Aunt brought me to tears. As the years pass, there are some changes but the relationships endure. Many people have called this a love story, but the movie gives more evidence of this than the book ever does. I don't believe in that angle. Frank Doel was just part of Helene's feelings of London, and not a romance on her or his part. My only real criticism has to do with the end of the film. The book does not lead you to the same ending, and it is very helpful to read the sequel to 84 Charing Cross Road, called The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. She did not call a few days after Frank died to find the cost of a trip to London to go there. If they had filmed it from the book it would have been just as compelling. She decided to publish the letters as Frank had died, and the reprint of the book by Reader's Digest and the fact that a London publisher decided to publish the book over a year later gave her the impetus and the finances to go to London. Having said all that, it is a great film, with amazing performances all around. This is just about the only time I have ever said, the book is better. If fact, I would encourage people to read all of Helene Hanff's works. She was an astonishing writer, and someone I wish I could have known.
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jboothmillard20 May 2019I only found out about this film when it was shown on television, I was mainly attracted by the names I recognised in the cast, but I read more about it, it is based on a true story, and it was rated well by critics, so I went with it. Basically in 1949, outspoken writer Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) lives in New York City, she is in search of obscure classics and British literature titles that she has been unable to find in any bookstore in the city. She notices an advertisement in the Saturday Review of Literature placed by antiquarian booksellers Marks & Co, located at the 84 Charing Cross Road in London, England. She writes a letter to the shop, chief buyer and manager Frank P. Doel (Sir Anthony Hopkins) replies and fulfils her request. A long-distance friendship develops over time between Hanff and Doel, and between Hanff and other staff members. This includes sending further book titles, birthday gifts, holiday packages and food parcels. Hanff and Doel through their letters discuss many topics, including the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the coronation of Elizabeth II, and Doel's relationship with his wife Nora (Dame Judi Dench). Hanff makes it clear that she is keen to come to London to meet Doel in person and see the bookstore, but many circumstances stop her from affording it and postpones her visit. Many things are happening around the characters, between the gloomy reserve of postwar Britain and the effervescence of Cold War America. In December 1968, it is too late when Hanff is saddened to find out that Doel has died, and the bookstore eventually closes. Hanff does finally arrange a trip to London, England in the summer of 1971, she finds the closed shop on Charing Cross Road. Also starring Jean De Baer as Maxine Stuart, Maurice Denham as George Martin, Eleanor David as Cecily Farr, The Fisher King's Mercedes Ruehl as Kay, Daniel Gerroll as Brian, Wendy Morgan as Megan Wells, Ian McNeice as Bill Humphries, Fawlty Towers' Connie Booth as The Lady from Delaware, Tony Todd as Demolition Workman and EastEnders' John Bardon as Labour Party Canvasser. Bancroft and Hopkins give splendidly gentle performances as the book lovers who form something of a transatlantic romance, the film is mostly told through the letters, but we do see bits and pieces from the supporting characters, it is a fascinating story of a relationship where the two people never actually meet each other, a worthwhile biographical drama. Good!
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MISSMOOHERSELF21 January 2007The British are known for movies that can tear your heart out without excessive emoting. "84 Charing Cross Road" is one such picture. It's been on many, many times and I know my mother loved this movie but I never saw it, who knows why. But having "discovered" Dame Judi Dench, who has a somewhat minor part, I wanted to see her in this movie. Well, I was mesmerized! There was no "snap and pop" here; just the quiet story of a book lover and a bookseller who live on 2 different continents and who are total opposites (or so it seems) but who form a friendship through letters --- what today's youngsters would call snail mail. She's a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker with a New York accent as thick as a deli sandwich. He's a dyed-in-the-wool Englishman whose accent isn't as thick but who is British through and through. Yet they both share a passion for books. This gentle true story, based on Helene Hanff's book, is told mainly through their correspondence and what a terrific correspondence it was.
Letter-writing, unfortunately, is a lost art. As convenient as Email is, it's not quite the same as a good, old-fashioned letter. This movie reminded me of that and of the 17-year correspondence I shared with my best friend (he has since died). I'm told I have a talent for letter-writing and I have 2 friends with whom I share this talent. I used to think those friends should get a computer but now I see I was wrong. Email is expedient but letter-writing is so much more long-lasting.
One of the reasons I stayed with the picture was one scene: Helene goes to the movies (remember, this was 1950) and what are they playing? My all-time favorite movie, "Brief Encounter." I couldn't turn away after that and I'm glad I stayed with it. This is one movie I definitely will add to my DVD and/or VHS collection. It's a keeper for sure. -
rickblaine19428 November 2005Naysayers would describe 84 Charing Cross Road as static, simplistic of plot, devoid of conflict and not challenging to the film-goer. Yet it is often moving in the way its long-distance relationship develops like a slowly steeping tea (between Helene and the bookstore employees), arch in its humorous bits of dialogue, and evocative of London and Londoners circa 1940- 50's. It makes you long for the day when businesses treated their customers with the ongoing care and courtesy that the employees of 84 CCR showed to Helene Hanff (even though the participants are 3,000 miles apart)! The film could have been spiced up by showing more locales (a tavern or social get-together after work perhaps) than the bookstore, Helene's apartment or the characters at home enjoying Helene's food packages. But I've seen this movie 4-5 times and it seems to bring one to a contemplative mood like a cozy sofa, a favorite book, and a snifter of brandy.
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plutus194731 May 2004Spoiler Alert!! It never ceases to amaze me sometimes how and why some films get nominated for awards and how some actually win them.
In my humble opinion this film is the best I have had the pleasure of seeing in many a year and how it was not nominated for Academy Awards beggars belief. The Best Actress Award for 1986/7 should have undoubtedly gone to Anne Bancroft for her portrayal of Helene Hanff and Best Supporting Actor to Anthony Hopkins as Frank Doel. Not forgetting David Hugh Jones, Hugh Whitemore and Brian West for Direction, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography respectively. (I could smell the mustiness of the old bookshop)
84 Charing Cross road was EVERYTHING a film should be, funny sad, riveting and perfectly acted. Not a single sign of sex, nudity, expletives or needless violence. How very, very refreshing.
I never wanted this film to end and when Helene finally got the chance to visit England and her 'Little Bookshop' It was oh so sad knowing that she was too late to meet Paul. The man she so obviously fell in love with.
How I wish I could write prose like Helene Hanff. -
Davalon-Davalon14 March 2008Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. How wrong could you go? As others have said, this is a charming little story about two people worlds apart who communicate via letters. It covers about 20 years and the people, the writer Helene and the book store manager Frank, never meet. Their whole world exists on paper -- letters and books to be exact. In a way, it was refreshing to see this movie, because this kind of story today would never be made. It also has a pre-007 Judi Dench, who is also fabulous, though she doesn't have much to do.
Performances aside, there are three things about this movie that do not work for me. One: Is the character of Helene a nun? Asexual? A lesbian? I mean, the woman has absolutely no romance in her life at all, unless you count her letters to Frank, which, although they seem to border on occasional flirting -- it is simply not a romance, sorry. So, we're asked to believe that this woman has gone through her entire life without even contemplating romance? Yeah, okay, she asks Frank to send her a book of love poems. Whoopee. What does she do on Friday nights? Nothing apparently.
Second, I simply cannot understand why it is that the director and/or producer thought it would be funny to break the fourth wall and have Anne (and, in one scene, Anthony) talk to the camera. It was really irritating and totally destroyed the mood. Absolutely unnecessary and did nothing for the film.
Third, what exactly is the point of the ending? I kept waiting for something to happen. Absolutely nothing does. First, how the hell does Helene get a key to the book shop. By magic? Second, at the penultimate moment, she eyes some letters on the floor -- it would have been so touching, so moving if she had found her own letters to Frank. Instead, she looks at them, then back to the camera and says something lame like, "I'm here."
The character of Helene was such a tightwad that even when it's clear that she has moved up in the world, she is still absolutely unwilling to take a trip to London to visit Frank -- and she's apparently so cheap she can't even pick up the phone to call him.
There are other unnecessary characters in this film and several scenes which could have easily been cut.
All of that aside, Anne and Anthony are a pleasure to watch because they're good actors. It was fun going back and forth between NYC and London, but about three-fourths of the way through I thought "Anne, get on the damn plane and go already!"
Interesting, yes. Perhaps something pleasant for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Riveting, no, but if you're a fan of Anne or Anthony, it's worth a watch. -
LongLiveRomania5 April 2020Like one other user said in a review, the action is very monotonous. It's all about an American spinster in the fifties which corresponds with a British antiquarian, developing a kind of relationship, and never gets to meet him. Honestly, the only significant thing I got from watching this was seeing a part of the life in London and New York in that era. However, nice looking leather books!