The Book of Eve

This lovely Canadian feature has Claire Bloom, playing younger than her real age and looking plump, as an English woman who leaves her marriage after 40 years. Although the narrative presents living on the pension as near-homelessness, with Bloom rifling through garbage to find useful items, her new life also happens to provide her with a protective boarding-type house, and a romance with a younger man. The romance is helped by the charm of Danjel Lavdie who plays off Bloom's elegance - though she uses a manic laugh to suggest that isn't totally a lady.

The treatment features an unintentional laugh in a gay man's line "I've never seen someone so careless with his (chess) queen", and a funny intentional exchange between Bloom and her ogre husband - "Couldn't ply your legs apart with a crowbar", "That probably wasn't the best way to try".

Susannah York pops up as Bloom's oldest friend, but she is featured in some of director Claude Fournier's ill-advised fantasy scenes - one where a boy in a thong parades for both women, and others where the characters are outlined with white light.

The film starts like a promising story about the struggles of an old lady who decides to leave her husband and financially secured but dissatisfied life for a new beginning. However, it quickly turns into a really cheesy love story. If you are a senior citizen who loves to read third class romance books this film might be appealing for you, but if you want something deeper just stay away from it.

I am not against love stories but i am against the way they are handled, the way this film is handled in particular. It is a one dimensional shallow story in which everything goes just smooth. Even if some problems occur, they are there to be solved easily so that everybody, especially the audience will feel happy. This film might be a perfect textbook about how a good idea can be wasted for the sake of reaching average television audience.

I also really hated the way Johnny character is depicted, as because this character does not reflect the reality even a bit. The likelihood that you will hit an average Romanian who is highly intellectual who has the best taste of everything, who can play piano, who has famous artist relatives if he is not himself an artist, who also have carpenter abilities, and also the perfect romantic lover, is not more than the likelihood you will hit such a guy from your own local town. This character might be only reflecting the image of a middle-European man in the fantasies of western world. But again, I don't think the producers cared about anything other then trying to shoot the most corny film ever.

Let me get this out of the way first - I absolutely loved the book and was consequently appalled at what happened along the way on its transition to this shallow, hackneyed, over-acted movie.

I have loved Claire Bloom for years but here she is grotesque, all gestures and wide-eyed enunciations as if she were on stage. Truly a string of false notes from start to finish of her desperate performance.

There is absolutely no chemistry between herself and Johnny played by Daniel Lavoie who is himself drawn in the most despicable of Eastern European caricatures, all brains, pitiful accented English and unrecognized talent, oozing sexuality and not fussy about whom he gloms it on to.

Alcoholic too to blur the edges and allow a good older Canadian woman to show him the error of his ways. Susannah York is wasted as well, pulled into some gluey stagey dialogue with her old friend Eva. Cringe making. Appalling. Avoid.

3 out of 10.