User reviews

This pastoral English period piece must be one of the quietest anti-war movies ever made, with a single gunshot heard throughout the entire film (except for the brief battleground flashback before the opening credits), and fired only by a sportsman. But its effect is no less traumatic on the shell-shocked protagonist: a veteran of The Great War taking refuge, after the Armistice, in an isolated English village, far away (except in his nightmares) from the trenches. Hired by the local church to excavate a medieval mural above the alter, he uncovers, in no particular order: an age-old mystery; a bittersweet attraction to the vicar's young wife; a kinship with another ex-soldier (Kenneth Branagh, pre-'Henry V') and, finally, some of the dignity he lost in battle. Don't expect any grand gestures from the leisurely told story. Any positive response to the film will depend entirely on a tolerance for such anachronistic virtues as forbearance, charity, and forgiveness.

This is a true gem of a film. Only those however who have an empathy for the destruction of World War One, and a sensitivity about how moving religious themes can be, will really appreciate the aspects of the film which make it timeless. It is deliberately slow and careful in its pace, and the contrasts between Church and Chapel, working and upper class, and social mobility makes it a film I have always found very moving. The use of the Schubert Mass as a musical backdrop at key points emphasises the cathartic journey Birkin makes. Indeed, his visit to the church as an old man demonstrates the way he has been cleansed of the mud of Flanders.

I think this is the most-watched movie in my collection. Its strong passions are beautifully understated by the entire ensemble, which is the thing that I appreciate most in this film. All the cast are excellent, including the children (and I must add a special appreciation for Jim Carter, who has played opposite Firth in at least two other films that I know of), but this is an absolute tour de force for both Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh. The viewer seems to share the pain and humiliation borne by the sufferers of "shell shock". Their encounters with the joy and grief inherent in the life and people of a small Yorkshire village are both poignant and humorous.

The slow pace enriches the character development and story. It mirrors the patient process of both leading characters' pursuits: Firth's character uncovers a medieval church mural slowly and carefully, as Branagh's seeks and uncovers a mysterious grave. Both work with an audience of curious local villagers by day, and wrestle with their personal demons by night. Slowly new bittersweet relationships develop as the summer progresses. I pity the impatient of this world who can't focus their attention long enough to take in or appreciate the rich content of the performances, the subtle direction, the beauty of both the cinematography and the music.

This movie is a gentle and uplifting experience each time it is viewed! A movie to be savored. I highly recommend it!

"A Month in the Country" stars two young men who were to become perhaps the two finest British male actors of their generation. It was Kenneth Branagh's first cinema film and the first leading role for Colin Firth. And yet, despite its stellar cast- Natasha Richardson also features- it was largely neglected after its cinema release 1987. Indeed, in the early 2000s it was even feared that it might have become a "lost film" until an original 35 mm print was discovered in the possession of it American distributors, Warner Bros. The film was produced by the British television station Channel 4, and was originally intended as a made-for-TV movie, although it eventually became a cinematic feature.

During the Middle Ages, the walls of most English parish churches were covered with brightly coloured murals depicting Bible stories or other religious themes; they served to instruct a largely illiterate populace in the rudiments of the Christian faith. Most of these were destroyed by zealous Protestant iconoclasts during either the Reformation or the Civil War, but a few survived, often protected by a coat of whitewash. I have often wondered if those who did this did so because covering up the offending images was cheaper and simpler than totally destroying them, or because they hoped that the offending images might be rediscovered in some later age. This, of course, did happen, generally when the church was being restored in the 19th or early 20th century.

The action of the film takes place during the summer of 1920 and concerns the restoration of just such a pre-Reformation wall painting. Tom Birkin, a World War I veteran, arrives in the Yorkshire village of Oxgodby to restore a recently discovered mural in the local church. The vicar, in fact, is not keen to see the painting restored, believing that it will prove a distraction to his congregation. The Puritan ethos of plainness and simplicity did not die with Oliver Cromwell, but survived within the Low Church wing of Anglicanism well into the 20th century. The vicar, however, has little choice in the matter; a wealthy parishioner has recently died leaving a substantial bequest to the church on condition that the restoration is carried out. In the course of his work Birkin befriends James Moon, another war veteran, who is carrying out an archaeological dig in the churchyard. Another important theme in the film is the growing emotional attachment between Birkin and Alice, the vicar's attractive and much younger wife.

I have not read the original novel by J. L. Carr upon which the film is based, but I suspect that this is one of those stories which works better on the printed page than it does on screen. There are some good things about the film. There is an excellent performance from Firth as Birkin, a man who has been traumatised by his wartime experiences and has become shy and nervous, speaking with a stammer. (In this respect the role can be seen as foreshadowing Firth's much later Oscar-winning performance in "The King's Speech"). As the film progresses however, Birkin recovers his self-confidence, possibly as a result of the realisation that he is doing excellent work on the restoration, and his tic and stammer disappear. There is also a good musical score from Howard Blake and some fine photography of the English countryside, partly in Yorkshire but also in Buckinghamshire. (St. Mary's, Radnage, was used as the church in the film).

I was largely attracted to the film because of my lifelong passion for church architecture, but despite this, and despite the positive features set out in the previous paragraph, I would not count it as a favourite of mine. Too often I found myself in agreement with the critic of the "Financial Times" who called it "a pastoral parable that has been left outside in the damp too long, causing its batteries to go flat". The narrative is meandering and slow-moving, and I could not see what point it was trying to make. One character alleges at one point that Moon spent the latter part of the war in a military prison for having a homosexual relationship with another soldier. This could have made an interesting subject for a film in its own right, but no real effort is made to explore it, and we never even discover if this is the truth or a piece of malicious gossip.

The composer Blake described the film as having "a serious anti-war theme", but this never really came across. We see very little of Birkin's experiences in the war, and nothing of Moon's, and there is no discussion of the reasons why the war was being fought. Today the idea that World War I was a tragic mistake has become such a commonplace that we forget that most people in Britain actively supported the war effort, and any film or work of literature set during the period that wants to be considered a serious anti-war statement needs to address the question of whether they were right to do so. A story like this one could indeed have made for a very good movie; that the film never really achieves this status must count as a wasted opportunity. 6/10

It's a love story about rebirth and self healing. The foundation of the plot seems very simple: a young man comes in a town to clean the wall of a church. With a subject like that it could be absolutely boring...but it's not. "Emotion" could be the word to describe it all, though "repressed emotion" would be even more accurate. It's a delicate movie, with thousands of details you might not see the first time; it's deep and truly is a masterpiece in its genre.

Of course to appreciate it you must love repertoire movies. It's not a blockbuster movie...far from that. You must be in a slow mood I guess to enjoy it.

This is the kind of movie I would like to keep in my collection: isn't it a pity that "anonymous" has probably sold his tape already? (I cannot find it in Montreal!)

As the person responsible for persuading Channel 4 to release this film on DVD for the first time I obviously hold a candle for this film. I knew the author of the novel, Carr, and spent a long time finding a print and the right holders. I didn't see it until the first showing for a decade, at my own book's launch, and I was stunned by how good, and how close to the book, it was. It is very quiet and very English. You will either fall in love with it, or miss the point and get bored. I doubt there is much middle ground. Kenneth Branagh is very proud of the film and Colin Firth rates it as one of his best ever performances. You should find more about my finding of the film on my bradwan site.

Certainly it's lovely to see early work here not only by Firth and Branagh, but several other now familiar faces. And the general set-up is engaging enough, with the old church and the small community. But it's not in the least clear how this is resolving what are presumably underlying issues from the war (and which themselves rarely come out beyond some predictable PTSD reactions). The hint of a romance between Richardson's character and Firth's is as faint as it is predictable. The more open conflict that appears early on and again later doesn't really go anywhere. Very intriguing elements, especially towards the end, are never really given their full value. And I don't get the significance of one character introduced at the last minute. In the end, even having read some summaries of the film itself and the underlying novel, I simply don't know what happened, beyond the outward and ultimately not very edifying facts.

From the opening moments when Firth gets off the train in the rain, and arrives in Oxgodby, this film is almost perfectly done. The acting, by Firth and Branaugh and Malahyde is fine, and believable. Firth arrives to restore a painting on a church wall. Shell -shocked from his service in France, and unhappy; the month at the lovely countryside restores him somewhat. The music, by Blake, is lovely. When I feel down, I put this on the VCR. I am restored. Wish it could be released again, as I have a rather poor copy. But I love it just the same Firth is wonderful

I've just watched this haunting movie for the second time, after an interval of several years and having just read the book on which it's based. I feel as though the director,actors, cinematographer took a walk inside my head to pluck the images that lived there as I read the book. Of course, it was those images inside THEIR heads that have made this film the masterpiece that it is...to enrich the heart, restore the soul. Colin Firth brought the character, Tom Birkin, so fully into life, with his sensitivity, conflicts, process of restoration (both as a skilled worker and as a damaged human being) and yearnings one wonders why such roles as this haven't been offered him since. His brooding Mr Darcy in the TV version of "Pride and Prejudice" used some of these talents, but not nearly enough. Kenneth Branagh's fine understated playing of the equally war damaged archaelogist (and a closet homosexual) is amazing and brilliant, considering especially his over-the-top performances in later films. Lovely Natasha Richardson creates just the right tone of controlled longing of the unhappily married Alice Keagh. Jim Carter and the rest of the cast are splendid as well. This is a film to return to again and again for its visual and soulful beauty, simplicity and depth. What an antidote for the juvenile,frentic blockbuster fare we're offered for the most part by the movie "business."

I am posting this submission partly in reaction to the last one currently on the site, which gave the movie the thumbs down. Then its author revealed that he had spent American currency hiring the video and I thought: aha, so that's why.

This film partly celebrates a piece of rural, Northern England and it really does help if you live there, which I do. (I could even take you to the railway station where the early scenes were shot, featuring incidentally the most unconvincing screen rain I have ever seen! it also stars in the first Harry Potter movie) The delicious soundtrack could only have been composed by someone steeped in Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. Only a man who knows if not at first hand then at least by intimate report the rivalry between "church" and "chapel" - which still persists in these parts - could have written that scene in the organ shop.

It's not an action movie but rather one that moves with the languid pace of a summer that feels as if it should be Edwardian, but that era is a dream now. There are dark ripples below the sunny surface. Birken's nervous tic, the nightmares of the trenches, the casual debauchery of Moon, are the aftertaste of WW1's horror. What of Christian faith after such slaughter? There is the simple Phillistine chapel culture, its weary preacher still ranting at his congregation about their sins, unaware that the war has made private transgression seem utterly trivial. There is the cold liturgical worship offered by the pious, buttoned up, tight-fisted Rev Keach. Birken finds no meaning in either, and immerses himself in the work of restoring a masterpiece from an age when faith still gripped the psyche, hoping perhaps to draw something of its historic power into himself. Moon - Branagh's character - is shallow by comparison, idle, serene, detached.

The scenes with Birken and Alice Keach are little gems of implication and understatement, she - it seems knowingly - playing Eve, complete with temptress's apple, to Birken's Adam. The potential for an affair is manifest, but we sense nothing will come of it, and in the last scene of the movie Birken is seen throwing away an apple core.

Branagh would go on to greater things; this is Colin Firth's film and while his celebrity rating has soared since he made it, I doubt he will ever turn in a performance that surpasses it in subtlety and richness.

But to end as I began: this is not a movie that I would expect to travel well. You really need to be English appreciate it - heck, I've seen American movies that washed right over me because I don't understand the rules of baseball!

I saw this film probably 15 years ago, and have never forgotten it. It's about two World War I soldiers who are recuperating at a church. The one is trying to find the remains of the local priest - it's been a while so my brain's a bit rusty - and the other is revealing a mural on the church wall. There's also a love story/triangle to it. It is fabulously acted and demonstrates the horrors faced by men during war time. Kenneth Branagh's performance is worth the price of rental alone. Colin Firth manages to act for a change, rather than seem like he's sleepwalking. (Check out Apartment Zero, another older and decent film.) Exceptional!

I was looking forward to this having read the reviews but it rates as one of the most boring movies I have ever watched. Despite building up to something you expect to happen, nothing ever does. It was as interesting as watching paint dry.

I have only seen this film twice because it was shown on cable and I've never been able to find it since. It is beautifully filmed and it really captures the essence of ART. No sex, no bad language, nothing objectionable, just pure film, pure cinema. Colin Firth is beautiful in this--he plays the character just right, a bit of angst, a bit of frustration and a whole lot of artist. Kenneth Branagh isn't bad either, and I don't always love him. One thing that makes this film so beautiful is the lighting. It's rarely dark--there's lots of sun and color, just like a landscape painting. They were very careful to make this a film about art and it's very successful. If you like Colin, you'll love this movie.

...and it happens slowly. If you're into blank stares and conversations that just end with one of the participants walking out of the frame, then this is the picture for you. Kenneth Branagh is given a little bit to work with and gets what he can out of it, but Colin Firth (whom I enjoy in so many other roles) has the dubious task of playing a hollow man who can't exhibit growth or even normal emotion. There are a few good shots of the Yorkshire countryside, but they've been presented better in other films.

When an arm or leg is removed, the amputee can continue to 'feel' it for some time afterwards. The phantom limb can hurt, or itch, or feel cold. But nothing is truly the same.

Similarly, the First World War irrevocably altered Britain, but in its immediate aftermath we limped on, unaware (or unwilling to admit) that anything had changed. It's this brief period of denial that Month in the Country illustrates: the moment when we teetered on the edge of the 19th century before toppling into the 20th.

Consequently, while it is a film of great heartbreak and loss, it is also one of great hope and triumph of the human spirit. There is one scene that perfectly illustrates this: a little girl visits her friend, who is sick in bed. She talks about the weather and her new hat and how they'll play together when her friend gets well. Then as she walks back home she says to Colin Firth

'She knows she's dying, doesn't she?'

It is as tragic for the girl to be so knowing and capable in the face of death as it is for young men to have experienced the hell of the trenches and return to indifference and hostility. But because of that tragedy they will go on to experience a more real, and potentially more joyful world, than the other inhabitants of comfortable and conventional Oxgodby.

I have to say this is my favourite film of all time. I've seen it a dozen times at least and it never diminishes now I have the DVD. For anyone interested, the Church in the film is St Mary's in Radnage, Buckinghamshire as are a lot of the locations. Firth, Branagh, Richardson and Carter are all fantastic! Like others before me, I wish i'd seen it on the big screen too. Still, it is always a total delight to watch! I have been to Radnage for picnic's etc and the countryside there is wonderful! Well worth the visit! Firth and Branagh have both moved on to bigger and better...? things since but, they both love this film and so do I!

13. A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY (drama, 1987) Birkin, a young WW1 veteran, arrives in the sleepy town of Oxgodby assigned to paint the church. He suffers from nightmares since being shell-shocked. Birkin meets the beautiful Alice (Natasha Richardson), the wife of the local pastor. Though they're immediately attracted to each other, they know they can't be together. But his love for Alice proves a happy respite from his war ravanged life.

Critique: To doze off in a sleepy afternoon watching 'A Month in the Country' feels almost like being there. This beautifully shot, nostalgic look at youth's lost moments, conjures up deeply felt emotions. The town of Oxgodby seems to exist between reality and fantasy. Slowly slumbering away in its own ambiance, unaware of the world around it. Where dreamers go, and weary travelers stumble on their way.

Pat O'Connor's doughty direction may get a bit tedious at times, but it has to be taken in the context of the film's setting (1920s England). Though some scenes do lag in pace, this does not take anything away from the film's dreamy (dark) undertones which are its strong points.

Character conflict is its weakest, however, since most of the characters react passively to the town's underhand prejudice. The best enduring quality is Birkin's lost-love relationship with both the town and Alice.

QUOTE: "God? What God? There is no God?"

I adored the book by J. L. Carr, and was skeptical that Birkin's first person narrative could be conveyed on film. Firth brilliantly makes this internal landscape manifest, while the film provides a sumptuous external setting. All the lead cast strike an effective balance between intensity and restraint. Every time I view the movie, I see things that I hadn't noticed before.

I wish I had seen "A Month in the Country" on the big screen when it was released. The laserdisc looks good, though I wonder what I'm missing. Even though the laserdisc soundtrack is monophonic, it was striking enough to make a friend jump when we were viewed it.

What does it take to be happy? First of all it takes tranquility. And so often the happiest days of our life are those when nothing crucial happened. So a month in the country was a real treat to the protagonist and A Month in the Country is a real treat to a viewer… "Well, we all see things with different eyes, and it gets you nowhere hoping that even one in a thousand will see things your way." The film is also a deepest contemplation on the nature of art and history and the harmony of life… "We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever – the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass." It is better to watch this movie after reading a book then all the nuances will be more vivid.

Colin Firth, as Tom Birkin, has me truly believing he IS Tom Birkin. The physical, mental and emotional trauma of war and what it does to those who survive are mirrored on Birkin's face as he attempts to get on with life and complete his assignment in the little town the story takes place. The scene where the reverend's wife is taking Birkin back to church by way of the wood is one I will never forget. It sums up the message of the story in one shot! Birkin's reaction was so similar to my own.

Jim Carter (who has also appeared with CF in The Hour of the Pig and Shakespeare in Love) is also a real treat. A Month In The Country has a lovely cast and some top notch performances. This is one of those movies worth searching for!

Although little seems to happen on the surface, "A Month in the Country" has an emotional depth that keeps this film lingering in the memory.

Set a few years after WW1, Tom Birkin (Colin Firth), a returned soldier, takes a job to restore a Medieval mural in a country church. He has a bad stammer, the result of traumatic wartime experiences, which we see briefly at the beginning. The vicar of the church, the Reverend Keach (Patrick Malahide) is only allowing him to restore the artwork under sufferance, but an attraction develops between Tom and the vicar's wife, Alice (Natasha Richardson). He also becomes friends with another returned soldier, James Moon (Kenneth Branagh), who is working on an archaeological dig, and also dealing with issues related to the war.

This is a restrained film, which against the background of life in rural Yorkshire in the early 1920's, depicts a couple of returned soldiers dealing with their disrupted lives and shattered nerves as best they can - shell shock was the broad term used back then.

To show how tough life was for many returned soldiers from WW1, there is a sobering statistic that seems to suggest that within 10 years of the end of hostilities, the same number of veterans had died that were actually killed during the war, especially from armies that had been exposed to gas such as those on the Western Front. In its quiet way, "A Month in the Country", although made 70 years after the war, gives pause for a little reflection.

However, the film has an uplifting tone. Although the locals at first seem uncaring about Tom, their later kindness and attempts at inclusion overwhelm him. Even the minister is seen to be a troubled man. The restoration of the mural is a painstaking job, but eventually the painting is revealed showing God in heaven while below him sinners suffer the torments of hell. With that hanging over their heads, it is little wonder that Tom and Alice do not give way to their mutual attraction even when she visits him in the belfry where he sleeps.

By the time Tom has finished restoring the mural, the month in the country, and the new friends he has made have also restored his health and his spirits - he no longer stammers.

It is fascinating to see actors like Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh fairly early in their careers. "A Month in the Country" rewards anyone who takes the time to let the story unfold at its measured pace - there are no fireworks here, and that in a way makes it a refreshing experience.