Product Details

• Actors: Glenda Jackson, Ben Kingsley
• Directors: John Irvin
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vestron Video
• Run Time: 96.0 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E19QOG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,198 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley are in top form." -Newsweek... "Special and beautiful, funny, lyrical and utterly unexpected.." -Los Angles Times... "3 1/2 star Sly and immensely amusing" -Chicago Sun Times, Roger Ebert Academy award winners Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson star in the exquisite romantic comedy TURTLE DIARY. Critically hailed as a mini-masterpiece, TURTLE DIARY is the enchanting film of people rediscovering the joys of life and love. Popular children's author Neaera Duncan, fearing her creative talents have evaporated, escapes into the dreamy world of sea turtles seeking inspiration in their beauty and grace. William Snow is a humble assistant in a bookstore where he, too, dreams of the turtles. Outside of their chance meetings at the aquarium, they have little in common, but an inspiration to free the captive turtles starts a bond that gives their lives a new outlook. The "turtlenappers" are about to set their own spirits free.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Crafted Character Studies In Poignant Low Key Drama, October 2, 2005

By 

Simon Davis (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turtle Diary (VHS Tape)

"Turtle Diary", starring the unexpectedly well matched Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley is a real personal favourite of mine and it's off beat, low key charm always fascinates me. In today's cinema where everything has to be instantaneous to keep the attention of jaded movie goers most films would never attempt to spend the time developing characters and situations as slowly and intricately as we find here. In this story that type of methodical approach works beautifully and allows the two lead actors to really flesh out their characters. Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley are totally believable as two very different individuals who are fired by a common cause which in this instance is to remove and then release the huge salt water turtles that are kept at the London Zoo into the ocean. The simple story, low key acting and interesting vignettes involving the supporting cast along the way all add up to a most touching story of self realisation and of the joy an individual can feel by moving outside of their comfort zone to achieve unexpected things.

"Turtle Diary", with its low key charm and everyday characters would never be a hit with the majority of modern day audiences so used to startling special effects and non stop action however for those that appreciate well thought out character studies of very indenitifable people then "Turtle Diary", makes highly recommended viewing. In one of her most understated performances Glenda Jackson, who has always been a great favourite on mine, truly shows the great acting range she is capable of in a performance which is light years away from her usual power house characterisations in much better known films. The highly satisfying chemistry that she enjoys on screen with Ben Kingsley in an equally low key performance is what makes "Turtle Diary", work so well and ensures that it be an essential part of any collection or retrospective of this great former actresses work. Try to catch this wonderfully quirky story of two very mismatched individuals united on a single mission as "Turtlenappers", who not only achieve their aim but also learn something about themselves in the process in the beautifully crafted British film "Turtle Diary" soon. You wont regret it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And the song of the turtle is heard in the land, April 26, 2009

By 

a gentle sound (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turtle Diary (VHS Tape)

In LA when I was school teaching in South Central 20 years ago after a very bad week, my then boyfriend and I would hop over to see films where Westwood blended with Beverly Hills. It was a very extreme time in my living... This film was one I so enjoyed. It is a quirky love of life story about a woman (Glenda Jackson who is a marvelous actress) with a terrible haircut, her joyous affection for turtles and a friendship formed with a used bookshop owner, a fellow lover of turtles and literature, and centers on a plot they develop to save some turtles. It is small and intimate and I believe a film my brother in law calls "a nothing really happened" piece. Recently thought of it clearly again sitting at a long horrible funeral for a friend who was a gentle lady, with a bad haircut, and a deep abiding love and kinship with turtles and a special bond with my husband. I realized this film had foreshadowed a bit of my ordinary "nothing happened" existence to me 20 years ago. In life we form friendships and find compassion and connection with people in seemingly random and precious moments. My turtle friend, who worked for my husband for a time, as a secretary in his school-then my school, took care of him , my kids, myself and was very private-revealed something of herself in this love of the turtles she had around her from time to time one of the few things you really knew about her. Real turtles and those collectible. She treated them like cats actually(in the film you are seeing giant sea turtles), these pet turtles responded back as bonded as you can imagine. It was a very unique thing to see a person so vibrantly connected to turtles. I felt that in the film , in the love these individuals had for the species...it seemed to relate to the privacy, shyness, fragility of feeling and yet strength of character, the primitive dignity of my friend, she easily could have been placed into the movies' internal spaces. For me now there she lives freed of earthly connection. So I watched it again this evening after 20 years and grieved deeply losing someone who was very shy and private and who suffered a terrible end of life to cancer spread through her system. To me I see the touching beauty of the friendship between the characters in the movie as so valuable and so meaningful on a personal level-I'm aging with such an awareness of how gentle simpatico with another , how the shared love of turtle, of literature , of something understood really about life , brings a kind of lightening of heart. For my friend her shared relating to my husband was so meaningful/personal to her in ways I could not entirely understand.. and her to him.This was movie core message. It was a lesson to me. I recommend this film to those who value friendship. You know I was also thinking of a film with Anne Bancroft(in New York) and her friend in London in the bookshop-anyway a very similar piece. Maybe it is a phenomenological relationship (whatever that is, no?)....but for me a tender film and now I'll always think of Terri T. and my love for her, turtles and dear warm moments I hold in my heart with friends of the spirit.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where is the DVD?, January 19, 2008

By 

Matthew T. Starnes - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turtle Diary (VHS Tape)

What an excellent film. I saw the film for the first time about eight years ago and I am still waiting for it to be released on DVD.