mike-hanlon Am I the only person in the Universe who hated this grim clichefest of a movie? Full of gangrenous, decaying ham, tiresomely twee, this horror ends up celebrating the ghastliest form of luvviedom that it should be sending up. The real mystery is how come so many people liked it. Is it the case that there are a lots of Americans out there who are taken in by this poor-man's Ealing-comedy as something terribly, authentically, 'English'? Could it be that having Kenneth Branagh in it is enough? No idea why this should be - the man is a booming, ghastly luvvie who can't act and can't direct. It was billed I seem to remember as a 'gentle comedy', two of the most terrifying words in the English language. Terrible terrible terrible. No more needs to be said.

Kevin G Shinnick Coming off the financial failure of two big films and the end of his marriage to Emma Thompson, Branagh wrote this witty, touching, and funny ode to the madness that goes on into putting on a show and acting, and the pure joy when ,against all odds, it turns out better than you could ever hope.Produced by Castle Rock and released on VHS by Columbia(after a small but critically successful theatrical run in the U.S. as MIDWINTER'S TALE), this is a film that deserves rediscovery and a decent DVD release. Seek it out. If you have any love of the theatre, this is a must own.The cast is full of familiar British faces,(Branagh himself does not appear,content with doing an admirable job of writing and directing) who all make their wonderful eccentric characters real and lovable.The nicest discovery is just how marvelous Joan Collins is at comedy.

alan_kearns When this film was televised in the UK as the US 'A Midwinters Tale' version, the very affecting scene in which Julia Sawalha explains why she does nothing about her shortsightedness, was cut.In case this was made by the producers rather than the broadcaster, and for anyone did not get to see this scene: Her reason was that living in a world where everything was blurred, made it easier to cope with the grief of losing her husband - when he was killed, she could not bear the starkness and clarity of the world she found herself in.

gianduja I love this film. It is small, and quiet, and it is rather unexpectedly in black and white. It opens like a documentary, and then slips you right into the role of fly on the wall for the rest of the film. The ensemble is terrific and keep an eye on the facial expressions of the actors who are not actually speaking. A lot of Branagh regulars make welcome appearances. The "look" is wonderfully textured and layered, taking advantage of b/w. Ironically, I prefer many of "Joe's" interpretations of Hamlet to the same scenes in the various film versions I've seen, including Branagh's epic version. Of course, the version they perform is designed for the stage, with a mostly live audience.... My favorite aspect of this film is that it turns a production of Hamlet into a "neo-pseudo-Shakespearean comedy." The parallels between the characters in Hamlet still exist in the players in A Midwinter's Tale. They've been updated and personalized so that Joe's comment that "the play is about loss" works equally well for the film. But, just as almost everyone is dead at the end of a Shakespearean tragedy, everyone is paired up at the end of MT. Of course, as a modern work it can't just end in weddings, but happy endings abound for everyone. The cleverness of this all is that there is naughty, campy, frivolous humour which hides deep emotional pain, uncertainty, and even tragedy. Anyone who is familiar with Shakespeare's comedies will be familiar with that dark edge which contrasts the joyous romping. Then there are the requisite farcical elements to make the parallel complete. The only unresolved issues I had at the end of the film/play were "how will Molly handle the fencing scene?" and "how is it possible for Henry to be both Claudius and the Player King?" But I'm not about to gripe about these little points when everything else is tied up so neatly and well.