Sick Product of a Sick System

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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

A Village Affair (1995) was directed by Moira Armstrong from a novel by Joanna Trollope. The plot is fairly basic--a city couple move from London to a country village. Troubles ensue.However, if you look more closely, troubles were brewing already. Nathaniel Parker plays Martin Jordan, a handsome and successful lawyer. He has two women in his life--his wife, Alice (Sophie Ward) and his mother Cecily Jordan (Claire Bloom). There's no question about who pulls the strings. Cecily is rich, successful, and extraordinarily intrusive. In the village we meet all the standard British Village Types--the meddling storekeeper, the meddling neighbors, the lord and lady of the manor. Most important, we meet Clodagh Unwin, their wild daughter, recently returned home and looking for something--maybe just trouble. (Also add in visiting evil brother Anthony Jordan, who is a really bad guy. He does everything villainous but twirl his mustache.)Still, if you can get past, "This is a village. We all know everyone's business," you can enjoy the subtleties of the movie, and the excellent acting. Also, the plot takes some twists and turns for which I wasn't prepared, which certainly makes the film more interesting.The picture really centers around Alice. Sophie Ward is an excellent Alice. In fact, she reminded me of Lewis Caroll's Alice--beset on every side by new and difficult challenges, and slowly becoming tough enough to cope.We saw this movie on a used VHS tape. I don't know if it's available in DVD. It worked very well on the small screen. I wouldn't say "A Village Affair" is a must-see film, but if you can find it, I'd recommend it. It's carrying an abysmal IMDb rating, but it's better than that.P.S. Notice how neatly director Armstrong frames the movie with the first and last scene.P.P.S. Take a careful look at daughter Natasha Jordan. It's a tiny role, but great things happened later to the actor who played it.

Alice (Sophie Ward) and Martin (Nathaniel Parker) have just moved from the big city to their dream house in a quaint village. Alice finds the adjustment to village life difficult and is depressed and unsatisfied with her mama's boy husband. Things get even worse when a pushy socialite (Kerry Fox) seems to make a play for Martin, when in fact, she's attracted to someone else.The story is a good one, but I didn't like any of the actors; to me, they were bland and boring with the exception of the wonderful Claire Bloom who plays Martin's overbearing mother. Sophie Ward's Alice is too colorless and dull to care about and she conjured up no romantic tension at all. Kerry Fox overacts constantly, always making loud, pleading speeches when a whispered one would be better. I didn't like her so the story fell flat.This BBC movie takes a good look at life in a village where everyone knows everything about everybody - not a good place to carry on a lesbian love affair. It's an interesting but lackluster movie that could have been better with a stronger cast.

Excellent movie but can't be had in NTSC. IT's in PAL only, right. I saw it on i offer dot com . The movie is a good one. Shows though how selfish and childish the one character is, and also the husband. The wife seems to be the only one with any sense at all. Will have to read the book. No, didn't know the actress in this came out. Very interesting....makes one wonder if an actress/actor can be typecast after doing a movie. Or, makes one wonder if they did the movie so well, was it really acting? The British really have made so very many good movies like this one......Tipping the velvet and Fingersmith are both great ones to go along with this one. And oh, Portrait of a Marriage, if it can be found.

I note that IMdb lists A Village Affair at 137min, whilst the VHS/DVD version runs to only 100min. Having seen the DVD version it does seem to me to be disjointed compared with the original TV airing.Anyone out with any informationIan