The Bookshop

Image credit: IMDb

The movie experience can be both a predictable and unpredictable one. The unwritten contract of genre is that it gives its audiences a certain experience, they expect it. But then there are some films that look like they might offer a particular experience and end up giving you a completely different one. Case in point, The Bookshop.

The film tells the story of Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), a widow who decides to open a bookshop in a tiny coastal village. While the endeavour is doomed from the start, what with the town’s most prestigious and influential woman out to evict Florence and turn her shop into a frivolous arts centre, Florence retains a wonderful courage that inspires many of the townsfolk.

I more or less walked into this one blind. I’d seen the cover at work and that pretty much was my sole influence in building my assumptions about what sort of film it would be. Like Chocolat, it’s a film that tells a touching story about keeping face in the glare of adversity. The story itself follows a recognisable trajectory, but then suddenly swerves to travel down a road that is wholly unexpected and very contrasting to my preconceived expectations: much more dramatic to the feel-good period piece I though it would be. 

Much of the story is told through voice-over as a recollection and, as more characters are introduced into the fray, it becomes apparent that this film is about more than a woman’s battle to save her business. It’s a touching tale of courage, retaining politeness when the world is against you, and how one person can inspire another, even shape their whole lives.

Image credit: Tranmission Films

The central performances of Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, and Patricia Clarkson are all superb, depicting a group of characters that are complex and in no way your clichéd heroes, supporting characters, or villains. Some of the most beautiful and memorable scenes are when there are no words at all and it falls entirely to the body and the face to tell of the deep, intricate emotional webs of these characters. Everyone did so well.

The Bookshop is undeniably a lovely film and while it takes an unexpected turn away from the expected feel-good movie, it nevertheless leaves its audience with an impression.

Director: Isabel Coixet, 2017

Cast: Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Hunter Tremayne, Honor Kneafsey, Michael Fitzgerald, Reg Wilson, James Lance, Jorge Suquet, and Patricia Clarkson