Another Movie I Loved

Cassandra Mortmain is a seventeen-year old girl living in an old, ramshackle castle in the English countryside. She lives with her family, eccentric and irrepressible characters all. They are penniless but it doesn't seem to cramp their wit or their style. The good-natured but rather befuddled father is struggling to be a writer. The much younger stepmother is his "muse". Formerly an artist's model, she inhabits the castle with dramatic flair, dressed in an ancient tea gown. Cassandra's older sister is a beauty, dreaming of love. Cassandra writes in her journal... thus, the narration of the story.


The movie was based on the book by the same name. It was written by Dodie Smith, a British writer. She has written a number of other novels, but I had never heard of them except for The Hundred and One Dalmations, which of course, was made into a movie too. When I read the book I Capture the Castle I loved it. When I heard a movie was being made (in 2003), of course I had to see it. I loved it, too. The movie captured the book perfectly for me. No book made into a movie had made me feel that way since "To Kill A Mockingbird".


Some of the adjectives used to describe this movie in reviews are: effervescent, winsome, and irrepressible. I agree. I love all these qualities in a movie.