Housekeeping *** (1987, Christine Lahti, Sara Walker, Andrea Burchill) – Classic Movie Review 9083

Writer-director Bill Forsyth, best known for his whimsical, Scottish comedies such as That Sinking Feeling and Gregory’s Girl, moves to the US and delivers a rather dark and disturbing character study with comic touches in the charming 1987 drama Housekeeping, based on the novel by Marilynne Robinson.

In the story, two sisters with a hidden past (their mother has committed suicide) have their lives turned upside down when they start living with their kindly, unconventional housesitting auntie, Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti), in their grandmother’s old house in a small town in the Pacific Northwest in 1955.

Audiences stayed away in droves (it took only just over $1 million at the box office) because it wasn’t ‘funny’ like his popular earlier work. But, as an emotional and personal drama, it is delivered in a skilful and sensitive manner, with a strong feel for period and location.

And it is lit up by superb acting from Christine Lahti, Sara Walker and Andrea Burchill.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9083

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