The Bookshop is a sumptuous cinematic adaptation which celebrates Bibliophilia itself. Based on Penelope Fitzgerald's celebrated novel of 1978, and set in a sleepy 1950's English town, The Bookshop tells the story of Florence Green's ultimately doomed attempt to re-energise an out of touch, morally somnambulant rural townsfolk through the dissemination of some of the most stirring literature of the day. Leaving grief and a dead husband in the past, Florence takes life into her own hands by opening a bookshop in Hardborough, a quiet Anglian town, and one sheltered from the social and sexual revolutions taking place in the far away urban centres. Through the dissemination of classic contemporary works of fiction such as Nabokov's Lolita and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, she stirs long buried feelings in the townsfolk and in particular in the reclusive Mr Brundish with whom she subsequently strikes up a deep bond. But her actions bring the wrath of the controlling, vengeful Violet Gamart, a local social doyenne who is jealously affronted by the changes our heroine has affected.
13 May 1958, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, UK
29 December 1959, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
1 December 1971, London, England, UK
10 February 1994, Madrid, Spain
1966
5 August 2004
14 April 1940, Chabua, Assam Province, British India [now Assam, India]
1951
April 16, 2018
An elegant story, precise and overcoming, though at times also a bit obvious. [Full Review in Spanish]
May 22, 2018
Measured and thoughtful, yet emotionally unengaging...
May 17, 2018
The Bookshop ends up as a fine advertisement for its namesake. Buy the book and stay home.
February 16, 2018
A fine, sensitive leading turn from Emily Mortimer helps shore up these quiet, lightly dust-covered proceedings, but can't quite put "The Bookshop" in the black.
May 02, 2018
Lovers of books and admirers of determination will embrace this enchanting film. I hope you will enjoy it, too.
February 19, 2018
Coixet's comfortable approach to Fitzgerald's material rarely rises above a simmer, favouring polite conversations laced with passive-aggressive intent.
February 19, 2018
Ironically, given the subject, the script is stilted, with actors often stuck on pause and not even the silver-tongued Nighy able to coax more than a laugh or two from his lines.
February 19, 2018
Coixet's script is a long way off perfect, but it's the least of her problems; the second least is the film's dirge of a score, but even that's a bummer.
April 11, 2018
The director appeals to classicism with constant conversations between her characters, subtle dialogues and stagings that affect the tranquility of this time and space of this place... [Full Review in Spanish]
February 16, 2018
It doesn't help that the film is pulverised by wall-to-wall narration.
November 20, 2017
Its subversive undercurrent, embodied in fine performances by Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy, is what makes it really interesting.
April 17, 2018
The Catalan director [Isabel Coixet] tells the story, which takes place at the end of the '50s, without bombast, and with a sober, but romantic style. [Full review in Spanish]
