Review of The Miniver Story

Mrs Miniver, while not completely flawless, is a superb film and quite rightly received 6 Oscar wins and a further 6 nominations. It was a very powerful and touching film that was beautifully made and superbly acted and directed. I was expecting very little from The Miniver Story judging from what has been said about it. After watching, it was a far better sequel than expected though admittedly it was unnecessary and is nowhere near as good. The script is very soap-opera-ish, skim-the-surface quality and in places caked in over-sentimentality, something that Mrs Miniver- for a melodrama- managed to avoid. The story does have compelling moments and isn't completely tedious, but because this is no longer set in the war the drama is not as emotionally investing or as tense, the characterisations(especially the children, where there is an aforementioned glaring omission) even sketchier. You care about Mrs and Clem, particularly the former, but the rest we don't know enough about. H.C.Potter's direction is competent and gets the job done, but it lacks the tightness and nuances that made William Wyler's direction add so much to the film. The Miniver Story looks beautiful though, with sumptuous period detail and photography that is both moody and luminous. The music is nicely understated, and there are bright spots in the story. Parts of it are heart-warming, the ending is heart-breaking as is the scene on the staircase and there is a funny scene demonstrating the Home Run. The acting is good, especially Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, Garson is very sincere and touching and Pidgeon acts with understated dignity, the two of them work wonderfully together. James Fox makes a very confident film debut and John Hodiak while not having a lot to do acquits himself well. Leo Genn and Reginald Owen are fine as well, in fact all the support cast are but you do miss May Witty, Teresa Wright and Henry Travers. All in all, not anywhere near as good a sequel and is somewhat unnecessary but while very problematic I found The Miniver Story better than anticipated. 6/10 Bethany Cox