Cranford

Let me make something perfectly clear, OK? I'm a guy. Like most guys, my favorite kind of movie has plenty of action, with fights, car chases, explosions, hot babes, and violence, with a little blood or gore sprinkled in. So why did I give this one five stars? Let me try to explain.

Going in, your typical red-blooded American male might be put off a bit; judging by it's cover, Cranford appears to be just another in a long line of boring English bonnet romances, full of people in wigs and weird clothes sitting around in parlours talking to each other. If you're looking for a testosterone-fueled trip through hell, a la Tarantino, Peckinpah or Woo, you might be disappointed. I waited and waited, but I could find not one fist fight, stabbing, shooting, rape, steamy sex scene, unexposed nipple or horrible murder in the whole dang thing!

But gents, don't automatically dismiss this one: if you look, you will find a surprising amount of death, gore and violence: in one scene, a kid smashes in the skull of a defenseless rabbit. In another, a cat pukes up some hand-knit lace. And then a cow falls into a lime pit and gets all it's hide burned off. So I guess you could say that animals have a tough time in this miniseries.

But the people have some rough patches as well. In the first twenty minutes the young carpenter Jem falls from a ladder and suffers a compound fracture of his right forearm, which is pretty gruesome. You wouldn't think that there would be many deaths in this one either, but it seems like people are keeling over every other minute. A very young kid dies of croup, a crippled young woman dies of who knows what, one of the main characters, Deborah Jenkyns (Eileen Atkins), strokes out, and the great Michael Gambon's character, the lovelorn Mr. Holbrook, contracts pneumonia and bites it before he has a chance to marry his long lost love, Mattie Jenkyns ((there is nothin' like a DAME) Judy Dench). The local shopkeeper Mr. Johnson is clubbed on the back of his head and robbed. A family of squatters is forced to live in abject squalor while the father must poach game to keep his family from starvation.

There is a top-notch "babe" in the series too. Kimberly Nixon plays the young daughter of the local parson. She is a "pretty as a picture" actress, first-rate eye candy, a perfect rosy-cheeked beauty seemingly born for this type of film, who will have a long and very bright future in the many inevitable English period romances to be produced over the next ten years. I hoped and prayed for a scene of her swimming naked in a sylvan lake or even a brief glimpse of her in the boudoir, but alas it never happened. I guess you will have to use your imagination.

Another huge negative: it appeared there were no "pavement princesses" or brothels in the town of Cranford. Or they chose not to show us. Damn!

Nor were there coach chases, bloody shootouts, pub brawls, adulterers, adulteresses or dispicable villains in Cranford.

However, you do get a lot of humor, color, poignancy, romance, emotion, beauty, magnificent costumes, fabulous photography, and wonderful character development and acting. With all that, I guess I can overlook the absence of fist fights and sex. I hate to admit that; it's not very manly of me, but it's true. Cranford did not suck.

I enjoyed seeing the DVD. It is British and the subtitles helped understand what was happening. I especially liked the story.

This was a joy to watch. If you love period films you will love this one!Such great talent! I laughed and cried.

This was totally in the mould of the very best of BBC historical drama - painstaking re-creation of a real English backwater, the social mores and then lovingly painted with the characters. Loved every minute of it!

I just finished watching the BBC's Cranford miniseries and it was wonderful. The series is set in a small town in 1840s England. Cranford is a town full of unmarried women (very common at the time with all of the men who had died in the Napoleonic wars and those who had gone to the colonies--India, etc) where social decorum and gossip are equally important. Change is afoot in Cranford as the railroad comes into the area and small town life threatens to change forever. The miniseries aptly captures the mood of the age, showing the emotion of the townspeople in a memorable way.

This is a wonderful ensemble piece, even though Judi Dench really does steal just about every scene she's in. All of the main characters are well developed, and as you learn their back-stories you like them even more. When the miniseries was over I wanted more--so I will definitely be renting the other BBC Elizabeth Gaskell movies.

I had never seen any series based on Elizabeth Gaskell novels before, so if you are in doubt, I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, or even the recent BBC version of Bleak House. The miniseries is done with all of the usual BBC taste so be ready to enjoy some quality period fun!