Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

I should have known when my friend Anne Marie recommended this film that it would be good, and when I found that it starred Joan Plowright that it would be very good. But seeing the film, based on the novel by British author Elizabeth Taylor (whose novels I have neglected, at my regret), I find myself in awe at the warmth and love that is displayed by this simple story of a woman, no longer young, all but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel. About to be overwhelmed by loneliness the woman strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer and discovers a new life in this friendship. Beautifully acted as I have come to expect from Dame Joan Plowright, this film exudes the feeling of sentiment without being sentimental. The situations depicted are both heart warming and emotionally wrenching. I enjoyed every detail in the lives of the characters and ended the film with a feeling that life is good.