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From Time To Time (Film)

Rating: M

Running Time: 95

Country: UK

Director: Julian Fellowes

Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Alex Etel, Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, Dominic West

Distributor: Hopscotch

Release Date: June 02, 2011

Film Worth: $12.00

FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

While it has a fascinating premise, this feels uninspired, and fails to differentiate itself from the slew of other fantasy flicks on offer.

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These days, it appears that fantasy films are continually being churned out in a drab and repetitive fashion. Directed by Julian Fellowes (best known for penning the Oscar-­winning ­Gosford Park screenplay and creator of the recent British period drama Downton Abbey), From Time to Time is based on the second novel in UK author Lucy M. Boston's popular Green Knowe series, published during the fifties. The film is yet another C.S. Lewis inspired fantasy, set against the backdrop of World War Two England.

 

13-year-old Tolly (Alex Ettel) is sent to spend Christmas with his grandmother, Mrs Oldknow (Maggie Smith), in the old family estate, Green Knowe, situated in Cambridgeshire in England. After a few nights, he is visited by the ghosts of the previous ancestral owners and is magically transported back and forth within their time and his. Tolly soon begins to unlock family secrets laid buried for generations...

 

While the premise is promising enough, Fellowes' second directorial feature (he also directed the 2005 thriller Separate Lies) unfortunately lacks depth or sturdy characterisation. Fellowes spends too much time circumnavigating the obvious, instead of focusing on the fields of memory that are hewn into the potentially intriguing narrative.

 

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