A Joanna Trollope - Village Affair on DVD (1995)

Felix Brook-Thompson from Lancashire , 23/03/2005

This made for tv adaptation of Joanna Trollope's novel 'A village affair' is absolutly excellent. It is close enough to the novel and it broke some ground for the BBC by portraying a lesbian relationship. As a 'happily' married woman Alice Jordan begins a secret affair with a local woman which is excellently presented with sensitivity and love. Keira knightley has a small role as Alice's eldest daughter and it is nice to see her before she hit the big time. There is another twist....Much as Alice Jordan left her husband for a woman, so (a few years after production) did Sophie Ward (who played her)!

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

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Paul from Birmingham, England , 24/01/2006

Good storyline but poor acting and direction...dont bother renting..

  5 out of 6 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Brighton , 29/05/2005

An excellent adaptation of the Joanna Trollope novel. Well acted especially by the two female leads Sophie Ward and Kerry Fox who convey the complexity of their relationship and their feeling about it very convincingly.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Northants , 20/02/2006

Quite a pleasant film to while away a winter evening. At least there was no loud background music that spoils so many modern films. Nothing very memorable, in fact I had a job to remember what it was all about.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

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Felix Brook-Thompson from Lancashire , 23/03/2005

This made for tv adaptation of Joanna Trollope's novel 'A village affair' is absolutly excellent. It is close enough to the novel and it broke some ground for the BBC by portraying a lesbian relationship. As a 'happily' married woman Alice Jordan begins a secret affair with a local woman which is excellently presented with sensitivity and love. Keira knightley has a small role as Alice's eldest daughter and it is nice to see her before she hit the big time. There is another twist....Much as Alice Jordan left her husband for a woman, so (a few years after production) did Sophie Ward (who played her)!

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

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* * * This review contains spoilers * * *

A customer from Kettering , 30/07/2008

A gently-paced, mildly entertaining little film which is about a couple of lesbians. The setting is a prosperous, idyllic but insular village, somewhere in middle England. Alice, a somewhat boring, self-centred and unlikeable woman from the outset, meets Clodagh, a more passionate but equally unconvincing character, the terribly posh daughter of the local gentry. The girls fall for each other and begin an affair. Alice's husband finds out which provokes a dull and drama-free exchange, but the main focus is the fall-out of the affair for the other villagers. They variously condemn and demean the affair – thus representing, perhaps, the views of the author herself – and even Alice eventually walks away from it, providing a “resolution” of sorts and a quasi-happy ending. The story had the potential of saying something important about lesbians, about love, about choices, but it was written by someone who apparently has no understanding of these kind of relationships, and perhaps couldn't even really imagine them. The film was made for TV and applauded at the time (c1995) for its liberal attitude, but now it looks very dated, stylized and superficial, at best. We could forgive all this if there was some passion, tension and character-development (you know, the usual stuff of drama) but these people are flat, almost lifeless, with no hint of human complexity. The protagonists present as self-indulgent, joyless bitches, playing at real life in their bigoted, chocolate-box little community. I actually found this film irritating though I suppose it is pleasant enough for a winter's evening when there is nothing else on telly. Many other reviewers are much kinder than this so probably worth giving it a go.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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