Certificate: 12A
Running time: 99 minutes
Starring: Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher, Judi Dench, Leslie Mann
Directed by: Edward Hall
The story: Suffering from writer’s block, a writer hires a spiritualist medium to hold a séance hoping for inspiration. However, events take a strange turn when the spirit of his deceased first wife is summoned.
The verdict: Though I knew that this film was based on Noël Coward’s play of the same name, that was as far as my knowledge of Blithe Spirit went having neither read the play nor seen the 1945 adaptation.
Blithe Spirit feels like a tricky film to review. It has not been overly well received critically and now having seen it, I do feel that perhaps some of its reviews are slightly harsh. However, that being said, there is something lacking about Blithe Spirit but I found it hard to put my finger on what exactly that was.
The performances are fine and it was fun to watch Judi Dench as the eccentric medium. Nothing about the cinematography particularly stood out but nor did I find it bad. It can be said that visually the film looked more like a television drama but that wasn’t an issue for me - the period setting did not feel like it warranted sleek and impressive visuals.
Blithe Spirit was an easy enough watch, romping along as a farce with some laugh out loud moments. I felt that by the third act it had lost a bit of momentum and, in spite of its 99 minutes running time, it felt longer.
Overall, whilst I enjoyed watching Blithe Spirit, I fear that in the long run, it may prove to be forgettable.
The rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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