A Rather English Marriage
A Rather English Marriage
| 03 October 1999 (USA)
A Rather English Marriage Trailers

A squadron leader and a retired milkman decide to bury their differences and move in together after they are both widowed on the very same night. They become a companionable if odd couple, until their unlikely friendship is threatened by the arrival of an alluring woman with a hidden agenda.

Reviews
Interesteg What makes it different from others?
SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen
CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
tibet10-1 You will enjoy this movie if you step back and watch it like a spoof put together by the actors themselves. Otherwise the story as portrayed in this production is just not logical. There are irritating loose ends and tangents that I found frustrating. However they are all great actors doing a fine job and if you take it as it comes and just accept it as a silly spoof then you will enjoy it. Why an otherwise sensible, financially independent, elderly widower, would move in with an old grumpy, ungrateful, insulting, rake is not well explained. If you are going to write a script at least give good solid logical reasons to support why a character follows a particular course of action. The moment I gave up asking why so and so did such and such I began to enjoy the journey. A few drinks would also help. It is a silly movie that I ended up enjoying. Rosamund Pike - her movie debut - and some others appear for about half a second. One wonders why you would go to the trouble of assembling a cast of actors who may well spend three days on set only to be almost invisible in the final production. Even more outrageous is that very often, some bugger would have spent weeks mulling over who to cast in these invisible roles. We can only hope the invisible ones receive regular residuals ! So grab a stiff drink, relax, throw logic out the window and watch this movie.
moonspinner55 Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay, reunited from 1983's "The Dresser", are just as impressive this time as two widowers, an elderly squadron leader and a retired milkman, who are put together by social services for convenience and companionship. Finney's blustery, randy woman-chaser, cheerfully bloated and lazy and horny, initially thinks of Courtenay as a prude, someone he can boss about. But efficient, humble Courtenay isn't willing to be a doormat, and Finney's appreciation of his housemate's quiet strength helps to produce a surprising friendship over time. Adaptation of Angela Lambert's book, produced for British television, is nimbly directed and edited, both frank and moving, providing the two justly-celebrated leads with rich character roles. Finney and Courtenay revel in these delicious dramatic opportunities and are a joy to watch.
DC1977 A modern television classic set in the Eighties, A Rather English Marriage tells the story of two recently widowed men; a brash World War Two squadron leader (Albert Finney) and a retired milkman (Tom Courtenay) who form an unlikely alliance as they come to terms with their bereavements.The two men miss their wives for totally different reasons, Roy Southgate (Courtenay) is a loyal, devoted husband who spends hours with his wife when visiting her at hospital. Reggie Conyngham-Jervis (Finney) is a philanderer who relies on his wife mainly for her cooking and cleaning skills and sees his hospital visits as time that could be better spent in the pub.When a social worker sees that each man could be the solution to the other's problems, these two characters (complete opposites plagued by personal problems they try to keep hidden) who were hospital waiting room acquaintances are now brought together full time.This is the sort of charming, well-written television drama that nobody seems to want to make anymore, the two leads forming an even more effective partnership than they did in The Dresser fifteen years earlier where Finney stole the show.Courtenay is superbly understated, Finney is more powerful and boisterous and probably the more versatile actor. Their contrasting styles complement each other perfectly.Although this is mainly a double-act, Joanna Lumley also excels as the gold-digger who has her eye on Reggie's wallet.However this drama belongs equally to Finney and Courtenay. The final scene with these two grand old men of film and theatre dancing to Glenn Miller's 'Moonlight Serenade' will surely prove to be one of the most lasting and endearing moments in British television.
Boris-34 I was tired and did not expect to stay with this movie, but thought I'd see how it began. The story and the absolutely wonderful performances by Finney and Courtenay kept me absorbed in it till it was all over. This quiet movie was, unexpectedly, to be one of my all-time favorites.
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