The Bookshop Parent Guide

Bookshops and libraries are magical spaces for bookworms. They are places to spend quiet afternoons, slowly browsing the shelves, searching out compelling new reads. Although that unhurried tempo is part of the charm of those experiences, The Bookshop, in its big screen debut, keeps the tempo but loses the charm.

This tale opens hopefully in the small East Anglian town of Harborough, circa 1959. Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), a middle-aged widow, has decided to fulfill her dream and start her own bookshop. She buys a rundown building, appropriately named the Old House, and opens for business. Unfortunately for Florence, the local grand dame, Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), has determined that the Old House would be the perfect site for an arts center. Violet is used to getting what she wants and is not going to let anything as minor as legal title stand in her way.

The rest of the movie is a battle between these two determined women. Florence, on her side, has courage and two allies: her eleven-year-old shop assistant, Christine Gipping (Honor Kneafsey), and local recluse and bibliophile, Edmund Brundish (Bill Nighy). In comparison, Violet has deep pockets, no moral scruples, connections with local government, and a nephew in parliament.

It is disappointing that this conflict fails to generate much excitement. And that is the root of this film’s problem. The Bookshop should be better than it is. Adapted from Penelope Fitzgerald’s best-selling novel, it has an excellent cast and enjoys a beautiful setting . However, the directing is clumsy and heavy-handed, the pacing is slow and uneven, and the movie is a good twenty minutes too long. The secondary characters are almost all wooden and unconvincing. Even heartfelt performances by Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy can’t breathe life into this dusty story– although the wind certainly could. The East Anglian coast experiences dramatic weather and there are so many shots of the wind blowing across the scenery that it is almost a character in the film.

On the bright side, this movie has very minor content issues. There are a handful of mild profanities and some smoking and social drinking. This is not a movie for children, who would not be interested in the plot. But there are no reasons why teens or adults shouldn’t watch The Bookshop. Sadly, there just aren’t any reasons why they would want to.