Enid

This drama, the first in a series entitled 'Women We Loved', has Helena Bonham-Carter portraying children's writer Enid Blyton. Although she is very good, and ably supported by Matthew McFadyen and Denis Lawson as her two husbands, this story suffers by presenting Blyton as one-dimensional, uncaring of her own family, and single-minded about her writing.

Sumptuously shot and accurate to the time in which it is set, 'Enid' is nevertheless strangely unsatisfying, and I really would have liked to have seen a more rounded piece of biography. Yes, Blyton probably did have many faults, but according to this she is only one step back from the Wicked Witch of the West!

I have never seen a biopic with so little sympathy for its subject. Even Hitler usually gets better treatment. Although Helena Bonham Carter delivers yet another great performance, Enid Blyton remains a very one dimensional character not to say that she is portrayed as cold and downright evil. Blyton's writing (more than 750 books) is shown as compulsive escapism from her own adulthood to an idealized childhood because her own childhood ended for her when her father left the family. Blyton seems to love children as a concept but has no emotional bond with her own daughters. As to why she treats her first husband so badly never becomes really clear, apparently it has to do with the fact that to some extent he was a father figure for her who ultimately had to disappoint her as a self fulfilling prophecy. That leaves the question open as to why her second marriage seems to work. There are occasions in that film where the viewer is just appalled by the evil of Blyton's interaction with people she loves but no one can really be evil and cold all the time. So this portray unfortunately misses the richness of any person's character and is more or less the trial of Enid Blyton. We have to bear in mind that this is fiction and not fact. If you research what her daughters say about their childhoods you find very differing accounts and the evil she shows in face to face conversation (e.g. with her driver) does not have any witnesses. My other misgiving about the film is that it is simply too short to allow character development or even orientation so that I got the impression that her children stayed forever in their teens and she was suddenly 47. All in all historic context was missing completely.

This film promulgates the stories spread about that Enid Blyton was a horrible person and a cold mother. This is not factual. If you read Barbara Stoney's very accurate biography - "Enid Blyton, The Biography" with a foreword written by Miss Blyton's own daughter Gillian - you will see that she adored her children and loved both her first and second husbands. She contributed enormous amounts of teaching aids to the teachers and children of the twentieth century, and should be remembered with love and admiration. Do not take this cinematic telling of her life as factual. It isn't. In her daughter's own words - "I was very close to my mother, and talked with her freely from early childhood." which disputes the notion of her having been a cold mother. I have read her biography, and whilst this film captures the atmosphere of the time, it does not capture the true events.

Enid Blyton is one of the best known children's authors to come from the UK, writing around 800 books during her career and created notable characters like Noddy and the Famous Five. When BBC Four made a season called Women we Loved they went for a warts and all telling of her live.

Enid starts of with Enid Blyton (Alexandra Brain/Lisa Diveney/Helena Bonham Carter) in the middle of a broken home. She would tell stories to her brothers to reassure them when their parent argued. Her father leaves the family Enid blames her mother and when old enough leaves to London to be come a writer. After some initial rejection Enid meets the publisher Hugh Pollock (Matthew MacFayden) and the two quickly fall in love and marry. With Enid becoming successful their become wealthy, start to have a family. Yet their marriage soars and whilst Enid was very good with young fans was a terrible mother to her own children. With the looming Hugh's stress increases and Enid finds comfort with another man, Kenneth Walters (Dennis Lawson).

Helena Bonham Carter is one of my favourite actresses and basically I would watch her in anything: even if a film is bad she is still very good in it. Her performance in Enid was very grounded and shows a very complex character, a woman who was brilliant children who were not own and had millions of fans, but awful with her own, often letting the nanny take care of them. Enid was made out to be a woman who would escape into fantasy and pretend nothing bad was happening, lying to save face. A woman who was too focused on her reading and had daddy issues for all her life. Bonham Carter was great at portraying this complex and rather vile character. But it was not just the Helena Bonham Carter show, Matthew MacFayden and Ramona Marquez were also great in Enid. Matthew MacFayden is an excellent actor and my favoured choice to follow Daniel Craig as 007. Here he has to play the archetypal 1930s man, some who had to bury his emotions and used alcohol to suppress them. But MacFayden was not just an emotional constipated, he does show a character who loves his children and who did love Enid once. Ramona Marquez is a great young child actress, best know for her role in Outnumbered. She still plays a naïve character, but this time much more scared and confused. She worked really well with the adult actors in the film.

James Hawes is best known as a television director and with Enid he didn't have much he could do. He did try and bring in some flair with flashbacks and the occasional fantasy sequence, but for the most part he was making a period pieces. But he still does a fine job, working with limited settings and with a limited budget was able to make Enid very authentic. He also got excellent performances from his actors and shows he has some talent.

Overall, worth watching, particularly if you are a Helena Bonham Carter fan.

Everybody has read at least one of Blyton's books ;it brings back good memories.

In "Enid" ,Helena Bonham- Carter portrays a malicious cold calculating writer ,incredibly selfish.when her books are lessons in moral (although a bit obsolete nowadays) ,she's only interested in the others ' children,and only because they admire her ;her own daughters do not get any love or affection (that's what the younger daughter wrote ,the other had reportedly another opinion).

She seems still in love with her father who nevertheless left the family when her siblings were young;Ken ,her second husband ,is an older ,mature man;she despises Hugh ,the first one,and she ruins his life .When WW2 breaks ,she acts as though she does not care ,still living in the Famous Five world ,on their private island ;but when business is at stake,she 's no longer a child,but a ruthless person,even a woman ahead of her time: that may be the key to the George /Georgina character to whom being a girl was a disgrace.

Bonham-Carter's excellent as ever and her performance is terrifying.