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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

An Exercise In Nonsense

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

A classic childhood adventure set in English Lake District in 1929. Four pre-teens travel by train with their mother for a weeks holiday in the Lake District. The children spend their time exploring in a rowing boat & camping on a small island. They befriend two sisters & become involved in an intrigue with their uncle; having adopted a pirates view of their world. The children enter a world of magic & adventure, where their freedom & imagination are the special effects. A charming tale, with exquisitely rendered period detail in a timeless landscape that will have you aching for a simpler age. Do not miss - your inner child will thank you for it.

Like many of the other reviewers of this film, I read all the Arthur Ransome books when I was young, and also saw the film when I was around 12 years old.It's interesting to read some of the reviewers wondering if the film could appeal to today's children in the age of Shrek and the Incredibles. Well, my two daughters just watched it this afternoon (too young to have read the books) and they were both glued to it and the oldest enthusiastically grabbed the books when I pulled them down from the shelf.Of course, the acting is awful. You ask yourself what on earth Virginia McKenna is doing in it, and Ronald Frazer (on paper) should be a good Captain Flint, but isn't. The children are almost universally awful. The Walker children's received RADA/Children's Film Foundation pronunciation is just about forgivable, but Kit Seymour as Nancy Blackett is so, so wrong, talking like some posh bird instead of the tomboy Northerner she should have been.But, ah, Kit Seymour where are you now? I had such feelings for you when I was 12. Your posh accent didn't matter to me then, and I carried a flame for you for a long time...

I read all the Arthur Ransome books as a child, and re-read them recently as an adult, but until today had not seen this film.It's well filmed, with only minor plot adaptations (although large chunks are missed out), and the scenery and period details are especially well done. The boats look good!The chunks missed out from the original story do give the film a slightly "chopped" feeling - it's difficult sometimes to work out how the characters got where they are. The acting lets the film down a bit, I think. The best of the Swallows is Titty by quite a long way - Susan is OK, but nothing special, and the boys are both awful - the worst kind of declamatory child acting. The Amazons are pretty good, but as they feature less in the book the bad acting of John and Roger really does spoil the film a bit. Odd that of these actors, John seems to have gone on to have the best career!The thing which the film lacks most, perhaps inevitably, is the narrative. Watching the film made me realize just how the skillful prose of the books draws you into another world - something the film doesn't quite manage.

I watched this over the Easter hols and found myself surprisingly engaged in a film which had no major plot beyond two groups of siblings befriending each and just enjoying their summer. It was a nice insight into how people, in particular children, were in the early 20th century and, at times, I was almost envious of them to be living in a time without the pressure of exams, employment, the threat of nuclear war, terrorism, etc. It does leave you wondering if the price we paid for the joys of technology and advancement in general was a bit too steep.Still, I found it hard to believe a mother would just let her four children sleep on some island for nights on end; at one point the youngest of the girls, aged no more than nine, was left alone and the mother, when finally checking up on the children, didn't seem that bothered. I also thought the eldest of the Swallow boys and the two Amazon girls were a tad too old to be playing pretend games, particularly when at times they honestly seemed to believe there were pirates lurking around a river in the middle of England. And after about forty minutes, I was wanting more action than some make-believe game the children were playing of invading pirates.On the whole, it is a decent fare and an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours if there is nothing else on TV. I think it would appeal to older people in their sixties, who might easily identify their own childhoods with to children and their 'adventures', compared to younger people who want a bit more action and excitement in their films.