Maggie Smith delivers a flawless performance as a lonely romance writer in My House in Umbria.
Herald rating: * * *
The love affair with Italy continues. Those who are over Under the Tuscan Sun - which, frankly, doesn't take much - can move on to the neighbouring province, Umbria, the green heart of Italy, for a tale that takes on a peculiar resonance this month.
Emily Delahunty
(Dame Maggie Smith) is a wealthy English romance writer running a pension in Umbria.
She finds herself in a railway carriage with the usual movie cast-list of fellow travellers including an elderly British general (and it's a hello from him, Ronnie Barker); his daughter; a young American, Aimee (Emmy Clarke) and her parents; a German photographer, Werner (Benno Furmann) and his girlfriend.
A terrorist bomb destroys their carriage; only Emily, the general, Werner, and Aimee survive.
Emily invites them to her villa to recuperate and the authorities have time to track down the traumatised Aimee's relatives.
With Quinty (Timothy Spall), Emily's butler and gardener, the four huddle into a kind of family, their idyll interrupted only by the visits of Inspector Girotti (Giancarlo Gianni), assigned to investigate the tragedy.
Authorities uncover Aimee's uncle, Thomas Riversmith (Chris Cooper), a wowser scientist with a prickly wife and no children, who will arrive to take her home.
For the ageing and increasingly lonely Emily, this is a body-blow. She will battle Thomas and, increasingly, the bottle, for the love of Aimee.
Beautiful on the eye, tugging on the heart, it's an affecting story that is perfectly pitched at its audience, carried by Smith's flawless portrayal of the romantic, yearning-to-be-loved Emily.
There's little to recommend the DVD version apart from its shimmering rendition of the Umbrian countryside and the glories of Siena; a commentary with director Richard Loncraine and executive producer Frank Doelger, cast and crew bios.
* My House in Umbria is on DVD, video now
