Review of Photographing Fairies (1997) by Henning 8 — 30 Jul 2006

Best in Show: Toby Stephens.

One for the future: Toby Stephens.

Stand-out scene: Photographing the Fairies.

Brainer or no-brainer: No brainer.

Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: Once.

DVD commentary any good?: n/a.

TV.

A strange fish, this one. As was the case with Enigma this movie takes an enthralling twentieth century happening, turns it into a subplot and grafts on a less interesting fictional tale. A demobbed photographer, Charles Castle, whose wife tragically died on their honeymoon is asked to verify the authenticity of the Cottingley Fairies photographs. Dismissing them out of hands it is only when a follow-up (fictional) photograph emerges that his interest is piqued. The fairy shown balancing on the girl's hand is reflected in her eye with signs of movement around the edges and Castle drops everything at his London studio (where he is assisted by Philip Davies) to journey north to investigate. There he becomes embroiled in the relationship between fairy believer Beatrice (Frances Barber) and her man-of-the-cloth hubbie (Sir Ben KIngsley). Castle discovers that the consumption of tiny flowers known as Fairy Trumpets slows down time and allows the consumer to see fairies and he sets out to photograph them using his then state-of-the-art equipment. Castle's bereavement grief gives this movie a brittle heart and in the battle for which movie is the best account of the Cottingley Fairies incident this loses out to Fairy Tale: A True Story big style. Steve Szilagyi wrote the book upon which the screenplay is based and while the story isn't terrible you find yourself frustrated that the truth has been subsumed by what is a lesser tale. Frances Barber makes the most of her short screentime and Emily Woof sparkles as the nanny at the Wright family cottage. Toby Stephens is suitably morose as the heartbroken widower and if "Hollywood ending" applied fully to a movie it's this one. I'm just glad I saw Fairy Tale: A True Story first.