User Reviews

SPOILERS....I watched this movie and found the actual love story different than most only because of the way the lover approached the wife. There was quite a bit not explained such as why the wife was really unhappy and why neither of them wife and the lover gave much serious thought of there actions until the end. I found the love they shared to be believable, but in a glass house kind of way. There were many side plots that went no where and I wondered if they were even needed. In the end I felt it was perfect of someone trying to put the Jeanie back in the bottle. But the husband was the one who really shined with his sacrifice and she then follows his lead. No one wants to admit the right thing was done in the end as one the lover was willing to put the kids through anything, including taking them overseas, never for once respecting the love they share with the father, just to make it work with the wife. I believe that the wife recognized the lover was not good for her family moving on from a separation. I actually liked the ending since neither parent will continue to live a lie, but compromised a workable solution for the future. Still recommended for a true story of sacrificing and compromising from a bad situation.

I enjoyed this movie very much. Every technical detail, every gesture of every actor, all the lovely sceneries so lush and green and the mounting tension within the storyline. All that professionalism kept me riveted to my seat from beginning to end. It was AFTER the movie was over, when I wiped the abundant tears running fluently down my old cheeks that my thinking mind took over my emotional one and started thinking about the whole thing.

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The ending is the weakest part of this movie. It really spoils everything done before. Were the producers afraid of the TV audience? Did the sponsor threatened to leave the production if they didn't end it like it did? We'll never know.

My feeling was that the lesbian love couldn't possibly end up happily while the poor sucker (read husband) was left behind with his macho ego totally crushed. Impossible. Unpardonable. Unspeakable.

Ergo, she resigns her lesbian new love and goes back --happy as the seven dwarfs, singing with her three children in the back of the car "Happy Days Are Here To Stay" or something similar-- to her nice, pure husband that never made her happy (even after three children!!) but that society expected and decided that that was the right thing to do.

And it is really surprising and quite a shock that her lesbian lover didn't commit suicide or felt from some deep cliff to her proper destiny (the sponsor missed that one).

A really disappointing film, considering that I hold the English cinema as the epitome of excellent movie making. Excellent actors and director, unfortunate script.

It was honestly the most saddest and powerful film I have ever seen! I was so disappointed that the ending was not what it seemed to be. There was a lot of grief in this film as if there was a funeral taking place that you would've already cried anyway.

I was so devastated for Claudia that she didn't get Alice and the support of her parents even! I also hated that no one in the village accepted Alice for who she was really was except a few but that was it. It was like everyone in that village would make your life so hard by not communicating to you or just going into your business!

The way Martin really raped Alice would completely shock you especially of how angry he was when he found out Alice cheated on him. Sure didn't he try to seduce Claudia to be his mistress? Alice shouldn't have at least tried to give him a second chance, he didn't really want it after all!

If I had any positives about this film, I would just say Alice and Claudia's love was better then the mess created!

This is a review of the film adaption of A Village Affair and not the book, which I have not read, but understand is a better product.

A Village Affair sat on my TV table over a year before being viewed. It was tough going.

Sophie Ward plays bored and frustrated housewife and mother Alice Jordan who moves to a small English village with her husband and three children. This village is the kind of place where everybody inexplicably knows everybody else's business. The kind of place where if you drive off the highway and drive through town to get gas, everyone on the street turns to stare as you pass.

Alice's dull life is livened by the arrival of Clodagh Unwin, played by Kerry Fox. A free spirited native returning home after a failed love affair in New York. Feigning interest in her husband, Clodagh's real desire is Alice. Friendship turns to love and the two soon become lovers.

Near the end I began to understand the core of the writer's intentions. To see it, you have to peel away the story elements like an onion. First, the Villagers. These people act as if it's the mid 60s instead of the 90s. Suspicious for no reason, intolerant, suspecting things with no evidence. Next, the families, including a brother who appears only to expose the lovers with no reason and parents who abandon Clodagh when she needs them most. In fact, if filmed today, the movie would be ridiculed and might be considered offensive because nearly all of the supporting characters are so very intolerant and say so.

Anyway, this leaves Clodagh and Alice who really do love each other. Although it's soon apparent, the most passionate feelings belong to Clodagh. Alice realizes she has become the obsession of her lover and worried about losing custody of her children decides to give up her relationship. This brings Clodagh to what amounts to a emotional breakdown. This does not deter Alice, who in the end, leaves the village and her lover.

To me, Alice has left behind a broken woman and sold out her own feelings. Clodagh had been in a bad relationship overseas. One can only wonder how she acted during and after the breakup. Leaving the final question. Did Alice escape a life she found suffocating and or a obsessive relationship or did she turn her back on the love of her life.

Perhaps the answer is in the book. It's sure not on screen. 4/10.

Alice (Sophie Ward) and Martin (Nathaniel Parker) have just moved from the big city to their dream house in a quaint village. Alice finds the adjustment to village life difficult and is depressed and unsatisfied with her mama's boy husband. Things get even worse when a pushy socialite (Kerry Fox) seems to make a play for Martin, when in fact, she's attracted to someone else.

The story is a good one, but I didn't like any of the actors; to me, they were bland and boring with the exception of the wonderful Claire Bloom who plays Martin's overbearing mother. Sophie Ward's Alice is too colorless and dull to care about and she conjured up no romantic tension at all. Kerry Fox overacts constantly, always making loud, pleading speeches when a whispered one would be better. I didn't like her so the story fell flat.

This BBC movie takes a good look at life in a village where everyone knows everything about everybody - not a good place to carry on a lesbian love affair. It's an interesting but lackluster movie that could have been better with a stronger cast.