Review of Ladies in Lavender (2004) by Stuart W — 21 Oct 2007

Gentle, leisurely paced British drama that would have been just another costume drama had it not been for placing two the country's greatest acting talents in the leads. Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith can do more in a silence than most actors can do with a full page of dialogue, and here they produce two impeccibly watchable performances.

Playing two sisters in a quiet Cornish village just after the war, they discover a young man washed up from the sea. Nursing him back to health, he is Polish and can play the violin with great majesty. But suspicions among the vliiagers and the fascination of a mysterious German woman slowly pulls the man away from the women who looked after him.

Looking more like it could comfortably sit as a Sunday evening TV drama, directorial debut Charles Dance (who also wrote the script) has created a warm and watchable movie that touches the heart in all the right places. And let's not forget the nice comedic performance from Miriam Margolyes, who manages to hold her own up against the giants that are Dench and Smith. A real pleasure.