From Time to Time was released in 2009, and is a very charming children's story. As I was watching this movie I found myself loving the story but disliking the movie. Julian Fellowes, Director and Writer of this picture who has won an Oscar for his writing in 2001′s Gosford Park, adapted the screenplay from Lucy M. Boston's novel The Chimneys of Treasure.
Maggie Smith and Alex Etel are the stars of this film, along with supporting actors consisting of Hugh Bonneville, Dominick West, and Timothy Spall. Maggie Smith, as always, did an exceptional job with her role; it wasn't necessarily realistically portrayed throughout, which I personally prefer in any film genre, but was nonetheless believable with the movie-type she was in. Maggie Smith just always seems to have a real grasp on her part, and how it should reflect the movie as a whole. Alex Etel carried the lead role of this film, and personally I don't know how this kid ever got into the acting industry. His lines are uncomfortably dry, with the only emotion that ever comes is when it is painfully clear that his director has told him to cry, laugh, etc., and even that is hard to watch without cringing or grimacing. Never once did I believe his character, or was taken into the world of the movie when he was on screen, which was sadly 90% of the film. I would have much preferred if the role had been given to some other actor such as Asa Butterfield, or some unknown child actor. Thankfully, Maggie Smith's consistent character, along with other believable appearances from Hugh Bonneville and especially Timothy Spall, were able to distract from this.
Julian Fellowes is a very good writer. It has been quite some time since I have last seen Gosford Park, but I do remember thinking that the dialogue was very good in his Oscar winning piece. I have also lately enjoyed the good writing of his in the BBC Television hit drama Downton Abbey. So I am unsure what went on here. The dialogue was very lousy, and the movie as a whole was very poorly concluded. This is the second of his only two attempts at directing, which was also rather bad. There were points where characters were put in a situation with lines that would be very urgent, but they would be very calm, which is clearly the fault of the director not of the actors. Or another example would be having a group of characters break into song simultaneously for just a few seconds, while meanwhile a great disaster is going on directly behind them. There were just many instances where it was clear the actors wanted to do something else, that they knew was better, and were probably right. Altogether, the writing, and especially the directing, was extremely poorly done, which made the movie difficult to watch. Which was a shame, because underneath of all of it what a really good story about a child learning about the lives of his ancestors, along with his own growth.
From Time to Time was a great disappointment to me not because I had really high hopes going into it, frankly I had never even heard of the film before, but because Mr. Fellowes took a really good story and made it into a rather "blah" movie. I wish I had been able to like this movie because of the story, but the way that it was put together was just too much of a distraction.
I give this movie a dissatisfied 5.2/10.
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