What makes it different from others?

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Based on the wartime diaries written for Mass-Observation by Nella Last, HOUSEWIFE, 49 tells the story of a Barrow-in-Furness homemaker's experiences of living through World War II. Her life is not especially exciting, but the written account of the struggles with her mental difficulties, an uncaring spouse, and the day-to-day traumas of the Blitz makes for compelling reading.I wish I could say the same about Victoria Wood's play. Gavin Millar's production makes strenuous efforts to appeal to viewers, through a relentless focus on Wood's face as she plays the central character; through a deliberate use of contrast between her stoicism and the indifference of husband Will (David Threlfall); and through the way she battles through all obstacles, both physical as well as mental, to undergo a significant change of character. She begins the film as a rather mousy, insignificant person, dominated by her husband and frightened of her social superiors. As the action progresses, however, she acquires both self-reliance and strength of character, so much so that she forces the bossy Mrs. Waite (Stephanie Cole) to make an apology.And yet there remains a fairly unbelievable air to the whole enterprise; we never get the sense of historical empathy that is essential to the success of most period dramas. This is perhaps due to the stereotyped casting; the deliberate contrasting of Nella's down-to-earth manner with the over-the-top snobbery of Mrs. Lord (Marcia Warren in one of her familiar snooty roles). As Mrs. Lynch, Cole merely reprises the bossy woman role most obvious in her long- running sitcom WAITING FOR GOD. There is also the problem of the over-emphatic dramaturgy, most obvious when Nella's son Cliff (Christopher Harper) reveals his true sexuality to his mother, who still fails to understand. Whether this is a willful decision or not is left uncertain; but in dramatic terms the scene is so obviously sign-posted that we wonder why she should be so imperceptive. On another occasion Nella has an argument with her husband about the fact that no one actually talks to her; the camera cuts to a shot of his face, then back to Nella, and then the husband stumps upstairs. If we did not understand previously why Nella chose to write her diary, we certainly do so now.There is also a slight problem of tone: Wood insists on including scenes of little dramatic value, that enable her to incorporate some of her characteristic one-liners. In Mass-Observation's London offices Godfrey (Hugh Sachs) jokes about a bag of dough-nuts with Jill (Daisy Haggard). This technique works well in some of Wood's comic plays, but seems a little incongruous here.Granada Television's production is high on production values, with the usual precise emphasis on period detail (their recreation of a bomb-site immediately after an air-raid is especially good, even down to the little boy wondering whether or not to rummage in the ruins of his family home). Perhaps the historic cars are just a little too shiny, but nonetheless they look cheap and functional, a characteristic of British social life at that time.HOUSEWIFE, 49 is certainly watchable, but we are left with the feeling that it could have been scripted slightly better.

I watched this because there wasn't much else on TV at the time and this seemed to be the best of a bad lot. What luck! I may otherwise have missed this beautiful and sensitive piece of television. It's a gem. Beautifully written and with excellent direction. Every acting performance, down to the smallest role, creates a real and recognizable character. The dialog is spot on and coveys so much in so few words. The changing dynamics of the relationship between husband and wife and mother and son were so real and so moving. It captures the mood of the times as described to me by older English people who lived through the war and the air-raids. I was sometimes chuckling and sometimes close to tears. I loved it. Bravo Ms Wood and bravo those who financed it and brought it to us.

Now I am not one to go overboard when reviewing anything but this you have to see. In an interview earlier this year Victoria Wood said she has a few things "in the fire" but she wouldn't elaborate. Comedienne, comedy actress & writer, singer of comedy songs she again writes herself, but this is something special. I have seen her act in non comedy roles before but this has such a range with her initially frightened of the world outside her home,naive, not daring to contradict her husband over anything to later taking charge in all aspects of her life and improving the lives of those around her. Set in the 2nd World War it is not a "feel good" drama and I was close to tears more than once. But you go through the journey she does and you come out the other side uplifted. Well I did, maybe you will too.

Comidienne Victoria Wood makes a surprisingly good straight actress in this drama, which lovingly recreates the atmosphere of the 1940s. Based on the real diaries of a depressed woman unexpectedly liberated by the war, it is, however, possessed of a certain slowness and obviousness, although the individual scenes are immaculately constructed. Overall, it lacks the human depth of Mike Leigh's 'Vera Drake', another portrait of the same times, as well as that film's dramatic intent. But it's funny to see David Threlfall playing a very different, but equally useless, man of the house, following his turn as Frank Gallacher in 'Shameless'.