Meaghan Edwards This is truly a cute little little known that I feel deserves more recognition. It appears this movie was made on a low budge but something about that adds a certain warm quality to it. I had a very hard time finding this movie and had to order it from one of the local music stores here. A truly charming look at small theatre. Jeremy Irons has certainly shown that he is more than capable of comedy; something I'd like to see him in more often! The only drawbacks to this movie is the poor sound (and sometimes lighting) quality; I would love to see a DVD release. I would recommend this movie to any fan of Hopkins, Irons, theatre or just anyone looking for something different and light in nature.

jhulme55 With all the high-flying "special effects" movies around these days, this movie is a bare-bones, real-life-like story about real people in a small town and the relationships among them. The cast is fantastic. Jeremy Irons should have gotten an Academy Award for his performance. Anthony Hopkins also turns in an admirable character-driven performance that is just one more example of his outstanding acting ability. There were technical aspects of the photography and sound that could be criticized, but, ignoring those, it is a wonderfully portrayed story. Be sure to watch this film with someone who is a feeling person with a good sense of humor and an interest in different people with different personalities. This movie is one of my all time favorites.

newatt-2 Most brilliant about the script is that "The Beggar's Opera" is being staged and as Jeremy Iron's character progresses through the narrative, many of his experiences mimic MacHeath's -- a phenomenon underlined by the score. So, familiarity with the source material makes for a brilliant movie. It might appear very light without that familiarity - also the twisted ending requires some knowledge of another stock theatre piece. Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons and Prunella Scales are utterly thorough - This is the first movie I ever bought, back in the dark pre-internet days when it had to be seriously hunted for. Sound quality is a bit poor and Anthony Hopkins' Welsh accent is a bit thick for those of us who rarely hear one.

NJMoon Alan Ayckbourn's only major stage to screenplay (to date) is mucked-up with a lot of tricky camera work and opened up like a cancer patient, straying far off the path set by an excellent stager re: newcomer disrupting a provincial troupe staging John Gay opera on proverbial shoestring. Fine effort by Tony Hopkins as transplanted Welshman director but to no avail. Films centering on staging plays (NOISES OFF, of note) rarely hit the mark and this is no exception. I'll keep my memories of the Royal National Theatre production and try to forget this plodding mess. Bury it with flick BEYOND THERAPY, another stager gone wrong for a wonderful stage scribe.