Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

After the death of her parents, an impoverished young woman (Kate Beckinsale) decides to live with some rural country relatives on their farm. Her ulterior motive is to get some experience for a novel she wants to write. But the eccentric backward household inspires her to change their lives. Based on the 1932 novel by Stella Gibbons and directed by John Schlesinger (DARLING). Originally shot for British television but released theatrically here (due to Schlesinger's urging) in the U.S. where it was a modest success both critically and at the box office. I've not read the original source material but apparently it was a parody of then contemporary writers romanticized rural fiction. I found the film's central character played by Beckinsale as a sort of cousin to Jane Austen's EMMA. I enjoyed its fairy tale like quality although its over simplified execution reduces it to a piffle of a movie. A first rate roster of English actors do fine work. With Ian McKellen, Eileen Atkins, Joanna Lumley, Rufus Sewell, Stephen Fry, Freddie Jones, Sheila Burrell and Miriam Margolyes.