Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Some things I liked some I did not.

Better Late Then Never

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Before I saw the movie last summer. As first impressions, I didn't know what to expect and the title of the film seemed boring, but I loved Dame Maggie Smith so I gave the movie a chance.Based on a novel by William Trevor is about a sophisticated, vulnerable, eccentric Authoress called Mrs Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) who is on her way to Milan on a monthly shopping trip with acquaintances on a carriage 219, they were about to look forward to the day in their own way until a bomb exploded on the carriage. Delahunty, Werner the young German (Benno Fürmann), General (Ronnie Barker), traumatised although unscathed but gone mute from the horror is 8 year old American Girl Aimee (Emmy Clarke) who are survivors. Out of Kindness and loneliness - Delahunty invite them to stay long term to her healing pensione and recuperate in her piece of paradise, the scenic vistas of the Italian country living. Thomas Riversmith (Chris Cooper) enters as Aimee's nitpicking Scientific Uncle with his share of brokenness​ and he too is slowly going through a transition like the others. As soon as healing process begins with everyone and coming to terms of their loses and gains through friendship, magic happens as well as their own purposes and Destinies.The atmosphere of this movie reminds me of Tea with Mussolini, but with a simplified plot whereas Tea with Mussolini has more characters and more serious Drama, My House in Umbria is light-hearted but you feel just as sympathetic for the characters. The versatile Maggie Smith is such a legend and won a deserved award as the dry humoured, elegant, Earth Angel that has a spiritual gift who comes to terms with a troubled secret past in search of her inner fulfilment as her form of Happiness, Inspector Girotti (Giancarlo Giannini from a walk in the clouds) is brilliant, Quinty (Timothy Spall) is wonderful as her assistant (his Irish accent is flawless). Chris Cooper is interesting as the attractive but blunt and straight laced Professor who is secretly passionate but not engaging to social relationships besides his work. Fürmann had the look of dread and worry and he put on a smart performance. The cast is wonderful, the setting, the pacing of the movie is perfect.What an enchanting movie with magic like Chocolat, it has warmth and charm without the Hocus Pocus. Goes to show that Humans as a living spirit can make magic when they connect.I own this movie on DVD now and can't stop watching it. Well done.

I came to this film fairly late. Anyone who loves Maggie Smith or enjoys movies with romantic European settings should have an opportunity to understand what they are getting. Beautiful settings, nice camera-work, believable characters, nicely stitched together story until we get close to the end when the main character (was this the directors intention???) reveals that she has a serious problem with alcohol, so much so that it puts a bizarre & uncomfortable twist to a scene in the uncle's bedroom in which we see a boozed up post-cougar woman who appears to expose herself & throw herself at an unwilling & terrified victim. A whole scene that is oiled by the bottle of booze she is cradling. My main question at the end of the film is why this uncle would surrender his beautiful niece to the tender mercies of an old woman who smokes too much & is clearly an alcoholic with a load of unresolved issues. A strange & unsettling ending.

"Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time" Voltaire. Maggie Smith is closer than most. She has, in abundance, that quality of stillness of doing 'nothing' and yet almost deafening one with the point. The greats all have this quality, Antony Hopkins does it better than most. Paul Newman has it. None can better Maggie Smith in this respect. She is and makes herself, vulnerable, and in this she captures her audience immediately. We're with her right from frame one. We suffer each set-back, every slight, every insult with her. She is an innocent child who's known just about every vile horrific thing that one human being can do to another and yet, still she trusts herself to give and to see and to feel. Bravo Maggie you got it all in, said it all, again! The film/programme is technically and literally, beautiful. I can and do watch it with the sound off on occasion – by now I know the script word perfect anyway. I sometimes do this with Ridley Scott's 'Duellists', the only other film which comes close to 'House in Umbria' in this visual respect for me. The ensemble playing is marvellous, a team of great actors at the very top of their game. Chris Cooper proves (not that there was ever any doubt) that he's one of the greats. I often wonder if he is appreciated as much in the U.S.A. as he is in the Europe. Please folk, if you've not experienced this work do so SOON! 9.99/10 (damning by faint praise?)

A tale of caring and understanding involving an elderly authoress, an elderly general, a child and a young man brought together by the tragedy of a bomb attack on a train. The authoress takes them to her home whilst the investigation by the local police continues. Each character presents inward battles and longings. The uncle of the young child, an eminent professor and her only remaining relative, arrives to take her back to America. The uncle, well-meaning but childless, is beleaguered by thoughts of doubt and uncertainty - how will he and his wife, also an academic cope with his niece? Estranged from the child's mother, his sister, the child is a stranger to him, thus creating tension and uncertainty. The young man, a German who had been travelling with a new girlfriend, is enigmatic. The elderly general's daughter died in the crash. He and the young man strive to create a garden for their hostess; an obvious metaphor for renewal and hope for the future. Excellent Excllent Excellent.