Enid

When I was a child, I absolutely adored Enid Blyton's books; like Beatrix Potter's simple but charming, whimsical and beautifully illustrated stories, her books were full of characters I could relate to(ie. Silky from the Magic Faraway Tree stories), magical or exciting adventures and moments where I laughed and cried. At 17, I still have the utmost respect for her work, and while it was flawed, I liked this biographical drama.

One definite plus was the way it was filmed, it was shot in a very sumptuous visual style that was most suitable. The costumes were ravishing, the scenery was breathtaking and the makeup was immaculate. The music score had parts that were a) haunting, b) poignant and c) hypnotic, the same effect that a minimalist score would have. I also liked the embedded references to her books, some as Enid sat at her typewriter, the script was well above average and the ending was somewhat moving.

The acting is very well done. Both Matthew Macfadyen and Dennis Lawson turned in great work as Hugh and Kenneth, and to some extent I felt sorry for both their characters; Hugh because of the way Enid treated him and Kenneth because he was seemingly oblivious to what Enid was really like. Helena Bonham Carter looked beautiful and gave a wonderful performance. If I were to be honest though I prefer her more passionate and headstrong characters in A Room with a View and Howards End.

It is here though where the flaws of this drama come. I think it was more to do with how she was written than how she was acted, but somehow I wasn't sure whether Enid was really that one-dimensional, here she is quite hypocritical and insensitive, then again it may be just me. Another problem if not so significant was that I felt some of the earlier scenes, particularly the scenes where Enid is a child, were a tad rushed.

Overall, I generally liked this biographical drama, not perfect in my opinion but worth watching. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I have been an avid Enid Blyton fan all my childhood. Like me if you have been one too, and happen to watch "Enid" the first thing that happens is morality kicks in. You feel betrayed, robbed of the childhood fondness and unknowing partaken to support the evil Enid Blyton was in real life. You would think life would have been better off not having watched it in first place, leaving the uncontaminated innocence as it should be and to narrate the Enid Blyton tales to your grand children. Alas truth is stranger than fiction.

Nonetheless, playing the devils' advocate - I still feel I should give due credit to Enid Blyton for all that magical adventures I have been during my childhood. The fond memories of Famous Five and Secret Seven are too strong to be dusted off. For whatever she was in personal life, that was her prerogative. I hardly paid any attention about it in my childhood so why should I now?

Enid had ghosts of her own but prefers to live in her own wonderland, and this was brilliantly brought to life on the screen.

Helena Bonham Carter put her life and soul into breathing life to the character of "Enid Blyton". I always thought Tim Burton mentoring her success, but clearly she can stand tall for herself.

Mathew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson provide adequate support.

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.

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.

I enjoyed this film and thought all the performances were excellent. As I watched it, however, I couldn't help but think that no real person is as unremittingly awful as the Enid portrayed here. The film also implied that Enid's life was one of complete lack of fulfilment and success. Erm, this was one of the most loved and successful writers ever?

I could imagine a totally different film where Enid's driven approach to writing and her 'neglect' of personal relationships would have been put down to her artistic genius. As it was, despite her huge success, the Enid here was basically portrayed as a failure and a bad person because she wasn't a chocolate-box mother, she had one affair and had one unhappy marriage. The film seems to be saying that despite her success she ultimately was a failure because she didn't pass the test as a wife and mother.

For this reason, I actually thought the film was a bit sexist, although perhaps reflecting sexist attitudes of the time. A good watch in itself, but didn't make me feel I'd got to know Enid Blyton.