Synopsis
Early 20th century England: while toasting his daughter Catherine's engagement, Arthur Winslow learns the royal naval academy expelled his 14-year-old son, Ronnie, for stealing five shillings. Father asks son if it is true; when the lad denies it, Arthur risks fortune, health, domestic peace, and Catherine's prospects to pursue justice.
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Cast
- Rebecca PidgeonCatherine Winslow
- Gemma JonesGrace Winslow
- Nigel HawthorneArthur Winslow
- Sarah FlindViolet
- Colin StintonDesmond Curry
- Jeremy NorthamSir Robert Morton
- Sara StewartMiss Barnes, Beacon Reporter
- Guy EdwardsRonnie Winslow
- Matthew PidgeonDickie Winslow
- Lana BilzerianUndermaid
Recommendations
- 100
Christian Science Monitor
This is the kind of movie that literate viewers pine for, laced with gracefulness and wit. - 88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The result is a rare treat, a revival of a period piece that doesn't descend into mere quaintness or prettiness, and that manages to capture the spirit of an earlier time without sacrificing the perspective of our own. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Sixty seconds of wondering if someone is about to kiss you is more entertaining than 60 minutes of kissing. By understanding that, Mamet is able to deliver a G-rated film that is largely about adult sexuality. - 80
The New York Times
Mamet's handsome, stately adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy does not embellish upon its source material. Instead it skillfully pares the play down to its essentials, arriving at a faithful but tighter version of this drama. - 80
L.A. Weekly
What's left is "Masterpiece Theatre," a very clean, straightforward adaptation of a beautifully constructed play, faithful to a dead man's classical virtues -- harmony, proportion, balance -- if not to the director's own, more iconoclastic ones. - 75
USA Today
In the movie's high point, (Jeremy) Northam conducts an antagonistic interview with the boy, who eludes well-placed lawyerly traps. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
A study in unexpressed emotion, but Mamet turns the flame so low that his film lacks the emotional payoff we expect. - 75
ReelViews
Mamet illustrates that he can work as capably from someone else's script as he can from his own, and that his talent as a director is not eclipsed by his ability as a writer.
