This apparently rather quiet movie does not provide racy car accidents, flaming infernos or heroes into the bargain: It serves, you might say an apparently simple story of hard work and missed opportunities in a calm and almost soothing manner, in a superb environment of tradition and ancient beauty of arts and crafts, where suspense is derived from the undercurrents of human existence in a strictly ordered society.
Wonderful camera work, scenery and script as well as plot, all of a piece, by that team around Jeremy Irons, starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, both stars who have been awarded prices all around the globe and knighted with reason, as well as Christopher Reeves or Hugh Grant.