Customer Reviews

The Camomile Lawn [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This miniseries delivers a stellar cast -- Felicity Kendall and Paul Eddington of "Good Neighbors" fame as Uncle Richard and Aunt Helena, a strangely mismatched married couple, as well as Jennifer Ehle, whose beautiful portrayal of the feisty Miss Elizabeth Bennet in Simon Langton's 1995 rendition of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" will be remembered by fellow British drama enthusiasts. Calypso, Ehle's character in "Camomile Lawn", was her screen (albeit small screen) debut.

Rosemary Harris, another veteran British actress, plays Calypso in her later years -- in real life, Ehle and Harris are mother and daughter. Cousin Oliver, another of the numerous Cuthbertson family relations, is played by Toby Stephens, real-life son of yet more British luminaries, the late Sir Robert Stephens and the unparalleled Dame Maggie Smith.

But to return to the family based on Mary Wesley's novel -- uncle and aunt preside over a halcyon summer estivation at their cliffside home in Cornwall in 1939. In addition to Calypso (Ehle) and Oliver (Stephens), there are brother and sister Walter (Ben Walden) and Polly (Tara Fitzgerald, whom some may recall as playing the free-spirited Topaz Mortmain in the film version of "I Capture the Castle"). The orphaned Sophie, portrayed magnificently by Rebecca Hall, features prominently in the storyline. Oliver, Calypso, Walter, Polly, and Sophie are all cousins, neices and nephews of the uptight, one-legged Richard Cuthbertson.

The lives of all the family members and their circle of friends is devastated by the onset of World War II, and each character breeds his or her own stripe of drama and delight. Calypso marries for money. Polly becomes a lascivious libertine. Sophie is dismissed to boarding school. Oliver joins the Army and Walter joins the Navy.

While some of the plot twists may offend some viewers, I found the overall strength of the stories and the wonderfully rendered characters overcame that (even if I had to suspend queasiness while Oliver constantly sought sexual congress with his cousin Calypso). Any fan of British drama should watch this, as I am sure it will not be found wanting.

The strength of this English mini-series is the gorgeous setting in Cornwall, where a group of cousins vacation in their Aunt's cliffside home and where grows the lawn of the title.

The onset of WWII shatters this idyllic scene. But we find out through the story that all was not as peaceful as we thought when the secrets of incest and child abuse come to light.

I loved the first three episodes of this delightfully nostalgic series. The randy sexcapades of London under fire were fun and revealing. The portrayal of the tendency of families to protect child abusers came out in the later episodes and was not so appealing. However, one wants to know how it ends!

The first three episodes get five stars, the last two are unfortunately not as good.

Chamomile Lawn follows the lives of half a dozen cousins and their friends during WWII. The Chamomile Lawn itself is a beautiful old Victorian located on the cliffs in Cornwall. The cousins lives intertwine, intermingle and at times incestuous relationships form. I particularly liked Sophie, Calypso and the twins.

At first I found the series a bit difficult to get into. Some of the characters are cold and a bit selfish. Also the child abuse and the incest is somewhat distasteful. But eventually I found myself really enjoying the scenery, the characters and the involved plot.

4 stars.

The story starts out with people going to Max's (Oliver Cotton) funeral 40 years after WWII. On the way to the funeral each person, several generations of family and friends reminisce on their earlier war years where five cousins gathered at their uncles' house with a chamomile lawn.

The costumes and sets were impeccable and carried you to a different world and time. You feel that you lived through the war. We see the destruction and disruption caused by the war.

We see the casualties of war and the trials for those left behind. In the midst of this people are growing up and making decisions, strange or unconventional decisions. Some of the film has the feel of the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird".

At first I was distracted because the actors are so well known such as Felicity Kendal (Helena Cuthbertson) and Paul Eddington (Richard Cuthbertson.) Hoverer by the end I came to look on them as the characters that they are playing.

Being a mini-series there is more time to add the finer points of the book. However there are a lot of subjects and actions that are just implied or not complete thoughts. I can only assume that the film relies heavily on one reading the book first. With the exception on one story line being wrapped up in the end many lose ends lead one to realize this is not a story with a beginning middle and end; it is just a snippet of life that is taken at face value as we move on.

My grand aunt recommended Mary Wesley's books to me recently and I was quickly engaged by her well-written stories. When I learned that The Camomile Lawn had also been adapted for TV, I knew I had to watch it and I wasn't disappointed. The period drama makes for an engaging viewing experience.

The story begins just before the onset of WW II in 1939 England. A middle-aged couple, Helena and Richard are making preparations for their nieces and nephews' arrival at their country estate in Cornwall, the scene of family reunions since summers past. The five cousins are made up of Calypso [a very vampish Jennifer Ehle, of Pride and Prejudice fame], Polly [Tara Fitzgerald], Oliver, Walter, and 10-year-old Sophie who seems lost and unwanted. Oliver, fresh from the Spanish Civil War, finds himself haunted by his experiences, whilst lusting after his virginal, yet catty cousin Calypso. Calypso declares from the very beginning [in response to Oliver's marriage proposal] that she will only marry for money. Polly and Walter are siblings, but very different in character - Walter is unassuming whereas Polly is bold and knows exactly what she wants. She also develops a close relationship with a pair of twin brothers who happen to be next door neighbors.

When war breaks out, the older cousins take off to London - Walter enlists in the Navy, Polly works for the State Department [in a position of secrecy], Oliver enlists in the army, and Calypso finds herself a rich husband, a much older man, Hector who has a tendency towards violence when he is drunk. Young Sophie finds herself confused and aimless, and has a number of troubling experiences that affects her emotionally.

There are many themes in this movie - adultery, pedophilia, grief, women's lib, any many more that might seem sensationalistic but are dealt with in a believable manner and also portrayed credibly by the stellar cast.

I thought the female actors did an amazing job - the over-sexed, materialistic Calypso is credibly portrayed by Jennifer Ehle [playing her natural blond self here] - and there's lots of nudity here. Ehle exposes all of her bits and shows off her luscious curves in many scenes that do not detract from the storyline. So does Tara Fitzgerald as Polly, a bit more practical and easier to like than the selfish Calypso, she is a feminist who takes responsibility for her sexual life [going to visit a gynaecologist for birth control], but makes some controversial decisions in her choice of bed partners. Young Sophie plays a tormented soul - an unsavory experience causes her much grief emotionally, and she is also the recipient of improper sexual advances from various quarters [though its handled with 'delicacy' in the movie so as not to offend our sensibilities].

The male characters are less appealing, though the violinist Max Erstweiler, a Jewish refugee from Europe is quite brilliantly portrayed - he is a genteel philanderer [if there can be such a term] - sleeping with all and sundry [in fact he works his way through most of the female characters here!]. Uncle Richard, who only has one leg, is a comic and also tragic character, harboring some very improper desires. Oliver and Walter were pretty insipid characters and I didn't much care for them. The twins were interesting but their characters were not fully explored.

This makes for an interesting and engaging viewing experience - it follows the characters as they traverse the period of WW II and portrays how their lives are affected by the war - one would think that wartime would impose strictures on one's life, and though it does, it was also a time for inhibited behavior, where the fear of one's mortality led to reckless sexual behavior and propriety was ignored. I liked how the notion of 'town wife' and 'country wife' was explored here.

This should appeal to those interested in WW II period dramas, focussing on societal and social changes on people of the period, both old and young.

The Camomile Lawn was one of the best UK mini-series of the 1990s. It's fun and beautifully written. It's a family drama set during the early years of World War II. The friends, are mostly 18 or 19 and join the war effort when war is declared. In the last episode the characters meet at a funeral thirty years later, giving it similarities to the Big Chill. Many of the US reviewers seem concerned about the nudity and the incest. With death all around them, the lead characters live for today and take a hedonistic approach to sex and booze.

Nudity is fairly common in UK TV drama. Regarding incest, Helena and Richard Cuthbertson are childless, but every summer they invite their nieces and nephews for a holiday to their home in Cornwall. Richard's nieces: Sophy, Polly and Calypso Cuthbertson are not related by blood to the main male characters, Helena's nephew Oliver or the Floyer twins. There is no incest. The film has strong female characters who all seem wise, pragmatic and fun. The men mostly seem flawed and weak in some way. They are either dim-witted, obsessed with sex or confused about what they want. It's a great series.

The cast is impressive enough, and the scenery and period tone is interesting but nothing can save this series from its shallow characterizations and tacky plot. I seldom find a film bad enough to regret the time wasted spent watching it. But for this one I did. Fortunately though I almost purchased it on amazon, I decided to rent it first. And I highly recommend renting it before purchasing it unseen in spite of the promise its stellar cast lends it.

With all that's going on in Gr. Br. during this period, the upheavals in the character's lives, etc, the drama in this flick never seems to rise above who is about to sleep with whom. The characters interchange beds and partners more often than a French farce. Without the humor. As if the producers were desperate to incite the watcher's flagging interest in this trivial film, there's a fair bit of nudity -- a lot by U.S. tv standards. Far from titilating, I ended up feeling sorry for any actor who felt that they needed to sacrifice their dignity to bare all for this boring piece of trash. There's no great artistic merit in this film. Most of the characters seem deeply unpleasant, selfish, even psychologically challenged. Calypso's self interest borders on sociopathic, and the rest of the characters gratify their own self interests regardless of any respect for the ties they should feel for friends, spouses, or the social strictures against molesting kids. Needless to say, few characters are very likable, and not much goes on in this film, apart from a lot of sleeping around. Given the characters don't seem to care for themselves or eachother, its hard to imagine why the viewer is supposed to care. The uninspired plot (such as it is) is not helped by being fractured by constant moving from present to past, most of the action (to put it in that sense) occuring in the WWII past. Most of them spend their regrouping in the present (for a funeral) carping at eachother for their actions in the past.

Unless you like really shallow relationships and lots of purely gratuitous sleeping around as the main plot without even a hint of anything more interesting, save yourself five hours of your life and skip this lame turkey. I am not one who has ever watched soap operas, but I had the impression that even soap operas probably have it all over this thing. It was just boring and unpleasant. I kept waiting for something to happen that lifted it up, but nothing did.

I watched this when it came out, and have returned to it years later.

And how different it seems in retrospect.

The acting is wooden - it's as if someone threw a chair onto the set. There are some good performances but in the main the order of the day is clipped upper class Englishness with warmth and humanity drained away. All very sterile.

The writing and dialogue is at times painful, stilted and unreal, with the delivery of lines from the actors forced and almost alien.

Some other strange stuff too: the uncle liked little girls (in a sexual way)and this was shrugged off as mild eccentricity. How times have changed since the 1990s !

What is good about this series is the historical references and the depiction and sense of the war years.

Well worth watching but not the greatest piece of drama.

just finished watching this, and absolutely loved it. the only flaw for me was the quicky ending which seemed a little disjointed, but the rest of the series was just wonderful, filled with complex and real characters.

yes, some puritans may balk at the frank and realistic protrayal of relationships (including sex), but this, finally, is really how people talk, rather than how we THINK folks talked 50 years ago.

great series. highly recommended.

One of the best DVDs I have seen. Details English life during the war, over decades, with the same family grouping. Wonderful!