Editor Reviews:

Amazon.com:
This lovely, 1991 adaptation of Elizabeth Von Arnim's novel has a superb cast and a tone so mellow you can feel your pulse get slower. Josie Lawrence and Miranda Richardson play a pair of unhappily married women who rent an Italian villa for a month, sharing the rent with a crusty Englishwoman (Joan Plowright) and a lonely aristocrat (Polly Walker). Sun, rest, sinking into the green grass for long naps--they all have a soulful effect on the quartet, and then on the men in their lives who make a surprise visit. Mike Newell (Into the West) directs with seeming effortlessness, and it is impossible not to be swayed by the promise of restoration for these burdened characters--or for anyone alive. Wonderful performances all around, including a particularly sensitive one by Alfred Molina and a very funny one by Jim Broadbent. --Tom Keogh

Rating : - Lowers blood pressure painlessly
We continue to await the DVD (in America) release of this instantly relaxing film. It quickly becomes a "comfort movie" like "White Christmas" and "Meet Me in St. Louis." Tougher than usual day? Get thee to Italy for a month(really just a couple of hours) with these beautifully painted characters.

Fine performances, cinematography and music become a tone poem of sensuality, warmth, hope, love and exquisite beauty.

Do we have to move to Sweden or Australia to own this gem on DVD; or must we buy yet another piece of machinery to decode the foreign recording? Why hasn't it become a DVD in this country? Don't we all long for some relief from our daily stresses? Couldn't we benefit from a few hours of beauty and humor? Get going, America!