Review of Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005) by Gaiti F — 03 Jun 2009

Content to shuffle along in gentle, cosy, retrograde fashion until Plowright takes the tumble down the stairs that brings what plot there is to a head. The Taylor of "Angel" would surely have been much less indulgent or generous towards the eccentricities of the Claremont residents, but director Ireland and writer Ruth Sacks, operating with one foot firmly in the past, have reshaped the material into a two-hour plea to help the aged.

They're blessed in this respect by a cast of rarely seen yet characterful veterans (Massey, Hale, Martin), hindered by the lowest possible budget a producer might raise for a literary adaptation. It nonetheless exudes a dotty, offbeam charm: I suspect grandparents everywhere, starved as they are for mature protagonists for which to cheer, might very well lap it up.