Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

trimmerb1234 Given Bill Naughton's reputation as a writer I am sure that the original play worked well - the structure, the staging and the casting all fell naturally into place. Here it is a very good cast and some good performances but this film version seems uncertain where its heading or what it's about. until the last 15 minutes when much if not all is revealed about Ezra (John Mills) and (Marjorie Rhodes) marriage - and that is how the film ends. In terms of structure, around half the film is fairly aimless: young couple get married but are obliged to live in the husband's parent's house. Then half way through it is revealed that the marriage has not been consummated, and the problem seems to be the young husband (we get no impression from Hywel Bennett if he is experienced or not. Its always the same Hywel Bennett from "Virgin Soldiers" to Joe Orton - clever agile but rather detached). From the very little he says on the subject it seems he was put off by his bride's laughter at particularly critical moment and still, 10 weeks later, nothing has progressed. In a rather knockabout section news of the problem spreads until the entire neighbourhood gets to know of it. The young husband gets mocked by his leering employer, fights with him, is sacked, comes home early and, his blood up, shows (for the first time?) passion for his wife and thereafter all goes like clockwork. At this point attention shifts to an oddity in his parent's marriage and something major is revealed and the film ends with Ezra sorrowfully reflecting on what has been revealed. But what was revealed didn't have a great bearing on the what the audience had sat through for an hour - the story of the rather feeble young couple. The film itself won no awards, just, and rightly so,one for Marjorie Rhodes great performance. And that accords with my view - apart from her powerful and coherent performance, the rest is rather floundering.I would be interested to read the play.

leedempsey This stands alongside "Its a wonderful life " as something sure to make any intelligent viewer laugh and weep with delight - which is no easy task for a hardened film fan and curmudgeon such as I. I cringe at sentimentality and so much formulaic drama but this sweeps you up, takes its time to draw you in with laughs from delightful performances and a genius script of delicate and succinct storytelling. We the audience, see all the pieces of a small puzzle fit together beautifully. By the end you will gasp with delight at the resolution. Ignore or enjoy the dated setting and period, - this film is not about England in the 1960s its about heart, family and genuine everyday love, with understated and underrated power. One of the greatest movies you have never heard of!!

ianlouisiana Forget the smoke and mirrors of "Ryan's Daughter",this is John Mills' best performance.There is real depth in Bill Naughton's script and Mr Mills brings it all out.No longer the perky cockney other-rank or the clipped-voice officer Mr Mills goes up a gear to produce a creation J.B.Priestley would have been proud of.The film takes rather less than two hours to tell a story that a TV soap would string out for six months. Sexually dysfunctional husbands were not common currency in 1967 and "The Family Way" was rather daring for bringing them out of the closet,so to speak.Hywel Bennet and Hayley Mills exemplify the optimism and resilience of youth on the cusp of the swinging sixties,and you hope that they will make a proper "go" of their marriage after its rather unfortunate start. With her vast experience of similar roles Marjorie Rhodes could have phoned her performance in,instead she invests her part with love and care the way only a very considerable artist can. Considered basically as a "sex comedy" in its day"The Family Way" is overdue a critical revision.As a look at working-class life it lacks the cynicism of John Braine ,the polemic of Alan Sillitoe and the rose-coloured sentimentalism of Alan Bennett.I cared about these people. They weren't the victims of beastly southern mill owners,intellectuals deprived of their rightful place in North London by a conspiracy of jessies from the Camden Town triangle,or slightly strange middle aged persons living at home with their widowed mothers,they were - in common with 99% of the rest of us - ordinary people just trying to make the best of what life comes up with.I urge you to seek this one out,you won't forget it n a hurry.

samos I first saw 'The Family Way" when it was first released. I enjoyed it then. I found it funny and sad at the same time. My date thought it was rather boring.Thirty years later I saw it again on Cable-TV and I've even recorded it so I can share it with my wife (not the woman I dated way back when). I've read many of the comments made by previous posters and I agree withmost of them.It is a very funny and very moving story. The young couple have problems from the very start: the "prank" on their wedding night and the disappointment the day after. Having to live with his parents because they can't get a "flat" or anything else would tend to put a crimp in anyone's love life.The final confrontation and resolution between husband and wife is simply great. The addition of Beethoven at the end of that scene underscores the sense of victory over all the adversity. Benny Hill couldn't have done it any better and I think he did try...John Mills clearly steals any scene he's in, even from the newly weds. The final scene in the movie isn't to be missed. It's what he doesn't know that makes it soo good.At one time I had the novel based on the film, but it's long lost.The sound track, written by Paul McCarthy, is great. If only he'd written more like that...