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Beautiful, moving film.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Blistering performances.

Watching this goofy and silly BBC movie for television, I didn't quite hang on the obvious question the film poses at the start. What in the world did Ada (Aunt Ada) Doom see in the woodshed that was so nasty? I think the writers and filmmakers wanted that of the viewers, but the hook doesn't quite grab. That's mostly due to the obvious shift then to lighthearted screenplay immediately after. They no doubt needed that quick switch to convince viewers that this was indeed a comedy. Well, all the psychological or market jockeying aside, this is an entertaining movie that isn't nearly as funny as it could have been. For instance, the members of Flora Poste's (Kate Beckinsale) family on the farm aren't as goofy as her London friends. Especially Mrs. Mary Smiling, played by Joanna Lumley. Her eccentric hobby of collecting women's bras and displaying them on torso mannequins is more far out than anyone on the farm. The thing about Flora's relatives on the farm is that they're all quite dirty. The place is run down and no one seems to care about cleaning it up or cleaning themselves. So, it's not that much a task for Flora to gradually get them to clean up their act. She does this in some clever ways with each one – and this is the part of the screenplay is very good. Of course, the viewers get onto what she is doing quickly, but the fun is in watching what she will do next. There are some holes in the plot where things are left out between scenes that would have been good to see. And, had the writers made the farm people actually a little more eccentric, there would have been much more comedy. Instead, the plot revolves closely around Flora, who provides very little of the comedy. Aside from that, I think one of the funniest things about this movie is the names of some of the people, and places. Besides Aunt Ada Doom, Mrs. Mary Smiling is always… you might guess – smiling. Freddie Jones plays Adam Lambsbreath. Anyone who's ever been around sheep can get an idea of that one. Stephen Fry is Meyerbug, which lists in the credits as Flora calls him, Mybug. And, he does bug her. Of course, there's the family name that has always had someone on Cold Comfort Farm, Starkadder. There are some others – Mrs. Beetle, Mr. Neck, etc. Then, there's Beershorn Halt, Ticklepenny Corner, Nettle Flitch, the Church of the Quiverin' Brethren, and Cold Comfort Farm. It's a lightly funny film with some fair performances from Ian McKellen as Amos Starkadder, Rufus Sewell as Seth, Fry as Mybug, Sheila Burrell as Aunt Ada, Eileen Atkins as Judith Starkadder, and Joanna Lumley as Mary Smiling. In a late scene Aunt Ada repeats aloud to everyone for the umpteenth time, "I saw something nasty in the woodshed." Mr. Neck, who is visiting, says, "Sure you did. But did it see you, Baby."Here are some favorite lines from the film. For more, see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the film. Flora Poste: I'm willing to bet there are also cousins called "Seth" and "Reuben." Mary Smiling: Why" Flora: Highly sexed young men living on a farm are always called Seth or Reuben. Amos Starkadder, "Seth, you drain the well. There's a neighbor missing."Amos Starkadder, "They'll all burn in hell, and someone's gotta tell 'em so.Flora Poste, "Then, you have no idea what you're going to say before you get there?" Amos Starkadder, "Aye. I always know it'll be something about burnin'."Earl P. Neck, taking Seth Starkadder to Hollywood, sees Judith and says to Flora, "I'd take here too, but she's too gloomy."

This is Kate Beckinsale back when she acted instead of did action movies for big bucks. Although I wish they hadn't left out some of the characters and changed some things around from the original book, this movie kept the whacky spirit of Stella Gibbon's novel.For instance, in the novel there were a host of other Starkadders being mistreated by Aunt Ada Doom who Flora helps, Rinnit marries the author Mr. Mybug (Myerburg!) played by Stephen Frye, not Ruben, and the farm isn't actually in bad shape. Ruben has been cooking the books he shows to Aunt Ada so that he can use the money to improve the farm.I have only been able to get my hands on one of the two sequel novels that Stella Gibbons wrote about these same characters, Conference at Cold Comfort Farm and it is not quite as good. But you do get to find out what happened to some of the characters after WWII. Someday I hope to get a copy of Christmas at cold comfort farm to read.Whacky good fun and I like the message that people should follow their own dream (even nutjob religious maniac Cousin Amos, brilliantly played by Sir Ian McKellan) rather than be a slave to a tyrant. It is unrealistic that Aunt Ada can be redeemed so easily but I like the way she was played, as having an epiphany when the American film Czar Mr. Neck asks her if the nasty thing in the woodshed saw her.Excellent movie all around.

This movie was suggested to me by a librarian co-worker of mine during college. She said she wasn't going to tell me what it was about and even blackened out the back cover of the VHS. She smiled as though plotting and walked away. I dashed home and haven't stopped watching it since. The language used blends poetry with oratory simplicity. The family is faulted in a righteous and enduring way that you want to be part of the farm too. Our heroin rushes in to a strange place with unknown relatives. She is a city girl, thrust upon Cold Comfort Farm. Are the Starkadders aware that their guest is set on tidying and making lovely their dear farm? Setting things as they should be, promoting and planting seeds of change. There are mysteries mentioned and owes due. Every little corner of this movie will enchant you; the writing is superb and greatly verbose. But truly the actors each take on and portray not a role, but the person. Supporting cast brings sparkles and bubbles to the movie. I find myself quoting from it often in life. Still laughing and remembering, "there will always be Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm."

"Cold Comfort Farm" has a familiar plot, but is very well done. Portraying young Flora Poste (Kate Beckinsale) moving in with her backwards relatives in 1930s England and trying to change everything, the movie has the perfect pacing. It's the sort of situation where her relatives sort of irk you, but you can't help but admire them (mainly due to Flora's snobbish attitude about everything). It just goes to show what a great director John Schlesinger ("Midnight Cowboy", "The Day of the Locust", "Pacific Heights") was. He will definitely be missed. Also starring Eileen Atkins, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, Miriam Margoyles and Rufus Sewell.