To me, this movie is perfection.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Joan Plowright does an exemplary performance as a widow dealing with her later years. After moving into a questionable guest hotel in London to be near to her oblivious family who seem to avoid familial relationships, a chance meeting with a young writer broadens the widow's world again. Their time together gives both a chance to reflect upon life, one at the beginning for him, and one near the end for her.The performances of Dame Joan Plowright and up and coming actor Rupert Friend are enhanced by fine character portrayals by Anna Massey as the hotels dowager and Timothy Bateson as the hotels doorman.Director Dan Ireland has made a remarkable film from the book by Elizabeth Taylor which deals with relationships. Using the natural settings and with fine acting this film explore new and old relationship. The story is about heart touching kindness between people and an accepting of ones own worth and staying true to values.

Many reviewers are using words like "lovely" and "beautiful" to describe this film. I agree, and I want to add: "peaceful and calm". If you're in the mood for action, excitement and thrills, choose something else. Your blood pressure won't rise while watching this movie; it will fall.Normally I don't like a slow, deliberate pace, but Joan Plowright had me in the first few minutes and never let go. The perfect actress for the part and the perfect part for the actress. And then there were all those long-careered British character actors being totally believable. Whenever we watch a recorded movie, my wife makes me stop it several times to go pee or get a snack. Not here. We watched it all the way through without interruption.The only problem is that when things go at a measured pace, the little goofs that are made in any movie become blatantly obvious. But that's a very minor quibble. Start this one and be prepared to be charmed.

I watched this movie simply because Joan Plowright was the lead. I actually had no idea what the movie was about. I was enthralled immediately, especially when I saw the cast surrounding Ms. Plowright. All seasoned and wonderful actors that helped make this movie more than a bit of fluff. This will probably not appeal to Action/Adventure addicts or most men, but it was a wonderful little movie. The friendship and love that develop between Mrs. Palfry and Ludo is believable because both people needed each other at that time. I know that young men can be that kind and caring. While in London a week ago I had taken the underground to Gloucester Rd. from Heathrow. My friend and I both had 50 lb. suitcases with us and we are both women over 60. As we turned the corner and saw the steps we had to climb to reach the street, a young man of around 25 was on his way down. He saw us struggling, picked up our suitcases, one in each hand and carried them up both flights of stairs!! We tried to pay him and all he said was, "Just enjoy the rest of your visit to London ladies". So there really are young, handsome men that don't knock you over in their haste to get somewhere. The young man in the movie went to Mrs. Palfry's aid in almost the same fashion.This movie is definitely sentimental, but not in a cloying, unctuous way. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT is an adaptation by Ruth Sacks of the book by British novelist Elizabeth Taylor (1912 - 1975) and directed with consummate skill by Dan Ireland. It is a showcase for the extraordinary talents of Dame Joan Plowright who owns the title role and of relative newcomer Rupert Friend, surely an actor to watch rise.Mrs. Palfrey (Plowright) is recently widowed and decides to move to a small hotel in London to spend her last years as a lady of independence. The Claremont is a crumbling old edifice that serves as a retirement home for a small but fascinating group of tenants: the fastidious but cranky Mrs. Arbuthnot (Anna Massey), a would-be suitor for Mrs. Palfrey's hand Mr. Osborne (Robert Lang), Mrs. Post (Marcia Warren), the nosy matchmaker Mrs. Burton (Georgina Hale), and a strange old couple, the De Salises (Millicent Martin and Michael Culkin). Once settled into her barely navigable room, Mrs. Palfrey meets her fellow 'inmates' at dinner, and announces that she has a grandson who will be calling on her at times. Yet despite multiple attempts her grandson Desmond (Lorcan O'Toole) doesn't respond and Mrs. Palfrey realizes she has entered a world of loneliness.Out on an errand she falls and is befriended by a handsome young busker/writer Ludovic Meyer (Rupert Friend) who nurses her leg wound, makes her tea, and escorts her home. Ludo is a loner and lonely and when Mrs. Palfrey offers him dinner at the hotel he gladly accepts. But at the hotel the guests presume that Mrs. Palfrey's guest will be her grandson Desmond: Mrs. Palfrey hastily informs Ludo that she has erred and Ludo agrees to pose as her grandson. The guests at the hotel are charmed by Ludo, and Mrs. Palfrey and Ludo grow increasingly bonded - they share many likes and tastes and meld into a beautiful relationship that would be the envy of any grandmother and grandson. Mrs. Palfrey's loneliness is dissipated by Ludo and the effect is vice versa. How the two progress to the end of the film, finding new lives from old ones, forms the immensely touching finale to the film. Though this film falls into the 'ensemble acting' category, so finely entwined are the performances of every actor in the cast, the film clearly belongs to Dame Joan Plowright whose performance once again proves that she is one of the durable treasures of cinema and stage. This is a film that will touch the hearts of even the most hardened viewers and this viewer cannot recommend it more highly. Grady Harp, December 06