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 enlarge | Director: Dan Ireland
Actor: Joan Plowright; Rupert Friend; Zoe Tapper; Anna Massey; Robert Lang (ii); Marcia Warren; Georgina Hale; Millicent Martin; Michael Culkin; Anna Carteret; Lorcan O'toole; Timothy Bateson; Clare Higgins; Emma Pike; Carl Proctor; Sophie Linfield; Olivia Caffrey
Studio: Westlake
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $11.99 (60%)
New (44) Used (16) Collectible (1) from $6.75
Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 3380
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: WESDWLV3438D
UPC: 798622343826
EAN: 0798622343826
ASIN: B000GYI3PY
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: December 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 56-58 of 58
 one of this years best January 28, 2007
Stalwart Kreinblaster (Xanadu)
36 out of 37 found this review helpful
Joan Plowright gives one of her best performances in this deeply effecting little film.. I love all of the characters staying in the hotel..every detail is surprisingly well done.. This is no Harold and Maude tale as others have noted but rather a story of two people who seem to understand each other in a way that even their closest relations do not.. It is charming right to the end - even if somewhat predictable..
Joan Plowright has such a lovely presence and never has to force her acting at all - she is so natural and believable.. I am sure this movie will have a lasting power..
Plowright runs the show January 22, 2007
Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I give this DVD 5 stars because I didn't want to stop watching. Plowright's acting is worth the view: she conveys complex emotions without saying a word or moving a muscle. The rest of the cast holds up extremely well, and in fact many are stars in their own right.
Inevitably we'll be reminded of Harold and Maude but that's a mistake. Maude was a stronger character: she loved running around to funerals and she took charge of her life. No waiting around for nephew to call. No holing up in some dreary hotel.
I believe there are some misleading hints in the first half of the movie about what will happen in the second.
The movie would have been spicier and perhaps more entertaining if they had played out. But what we have is different and wholly deserving of praise in its own right.
Golden January 18, 2007
Manfred G. Willasch (Seattle)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you want to leave the worries of every day and consider the intimate moments of a life lived well, consider this lovely little gem. Joan and her co-star will give you a delightful little getaway from the nasty and open a window into the sublime. Relationships should be so lovely!
Love: Meeting the Needs of the Aged and the Youthful December 25, 2006
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT is an adaptation by Ruth Sacks of the book by British novelist Elizabeth Taylor (1912 - 1975) and directed with consummate skill by Dan Ireland. It is a showcase for the extraordinary talents of Dame Joan Plowright who owns the title role
Mrs. Palfrey (Plowright) is recently widowed and decides to move to a small hotel in London to spend her last years as a lady of independence. The Claremont is a crumbling old edifice that serves as a retirement home for a small but fascinating group of tenants: the fastidious but cranky Mrs. Arbuthnot (Anna Massey), a would-be suitor for Mrs. Palfrey's hand Mr. Osborne (Robert Lang), Mrs. Post (Marcia Warren), the nosy matchmaker Mrs. Burton (Georgina Hale), and a strange old couple, the De Salises (Millicent Martin and Michael Culkin). Once settled into her barely navigable room, Mrs. Palfrey meets her fellow 'inmates' at dinner, and announces that she has a grandson who will be calling on her at times. Yet despite multiple attempts her grandson Desmond (Lorcan O'Toole) doesn't respond and Mrs. Palfrey realizes she has entered a world of loneliness.
Out on an errand she falls and is befriended by a handsome young busker/writer Ludovic Meyer (Rupert Friend) who nurses her leg wound, makes her tea, and escorts her home. Ludo is a loner and lonely and when Mrs. Palfrey offers him dinner at the hotel he gladly accepts. But at the hotel the guests presume that Mrs. Palfrey's guest will be her grandson Desmond: Mrs. Palfrey hastily informs Ludo that she has erred and Ludo agrees to pose as her grandson. The guests at the hotel are charmed by Ludo, and Mrs. Palfrey and Ludo grow increasingly bonded - they share many likes and tastes and meld into a beautiful relationship that would be the envy of any grandmother and grandson. Mrs. Palfrey's loneliness is dissipated by Ludo and the effect is vice versa. How the two progress to the end of the film, finding new lives from old ones, forms the immensely touching finale to the film.
Though this film falls into the 'ensemble acting' category, so finely entwined are the performances of every actor in the cast, the film clearly belongs to Dame Joan Plowright whose performance once again proves that she is one of the durable treasures of cinema and stage. This is a film that will touch the hearts of even the most hardened viewers and this viewer cannot recommend it more highly. Grady Harp, December 06
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