This Beautiful Fantastic – Movie Review

I received a free screening of This Beautiful Fantastic for my honest review.

About the Movie:

A contemporary fairy tale revolving around the unlikely of friendship between a reclusive young woman with dreams of being a children’s book author and a cantankerous widower, set against the backdrop of a beautiful garden in the heart of London.  Bella Brown (Jessica Brown Findlay) is a beautifully quirky young woman who dreams of writing and illustrating a successful children’s book. When she is forced by her landlord to deal with her neglected garden or face eviction, she meets her nemesis, match and mentor in Alfie Stephenson (Tom Wilkinson), a grumpy, loveless, rich old man who lives next door and happens to be an amazing horticulturalist.

Written and Directed by

Simon Aboud

View the Trailer:

My Opinion:

This is a story of a young woman named Bella who is a little bit, let’s call it quirky. She lives alone in a cottage that she keeps spotless except for the garden. She is, for reasons I never really completely grasped, afraid of plants. Her neighbor is aggrieved that she ignores the outside and grouses to her and to his cook about the state of the garden. He is a curmudgeon of the highest order and he treats everyone around him terribly. One evening Bella falls in the garden and awakens in the neighbor’s house. He has called for his doctor to care for her and so begins a relationship between Bella, her neighbor and his cook/houseman.

I am the first to admit that I am no expert on what goes in to making a movie. I can only tell you what I like. And I really enjoyed this movie. Bella’s character was interesting and the actress who played the part – Jessica Brown Findlay – was absolutely luminous in the role. Tom Wilkinson played the neighbor and he was perfect in the part of the old crank who helps Bella with her fear of plants. The story moved along quite quickly and I was sad to find that the movie was ending. It’s not that long at 92 minutes and it’s the kind of movie that stays with you.

The Beautiful Fantastic is in theatres starting March 10th