Olive Kitteridge

I love Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins since I saw them both in Burn after reading. That was when I started to collect (and see) all movies from the Coen brothers, including Fargo, where Frances McDormand was very good. And I always see every movie which has Richard Jenkins as well. But that here was when I realized how incredibly good actors they both are, it just was magic. Like I was spying on some family somehow, you never felt it was just acting. The story was sad, and sometimes embarrassing, but it had wonderful pictures and it was so.... human. I had to keep looking. And in the end there was hope as well. So maybe I should have given more than 8 points, for the acting was definitely 10/10.

There will, I think, never be a film series that even approaches this film's excellence. It is one of the most uniquely cast and expertly played works of art I will probably ever experience. The performances were staggeringly riveting. Frances McDormand and the rest of her supporting cast were magnificent. I did not want it to end and I surely will not describe the minutiae of it for fear I would give away its essence.

Brava to Frances McDormand acting in and producing a film made for her and Bravo to Richard Jenkins, with whom I fell in love. Three cheers to all the other actors who made this film great.

This series brings the complexities of living to the screen. Life, as Olive says, confounds her and it does me as well. I'll bet most of us in our small worlds can say that too as life does not always live up to one's expectations of it and we are often trapped by those who came into our lives through no fault of our own. There were WONDERFUL performances all around. See it. It is a must.

Olive Kitteridge is a fable regarding original people in original situations. The subtlety with which Lisa Cholodenko carries the four-hour mini-series is what emphasizes the story about a woman who is childish yet cruel, sappy yet caring, wildly honest yet deeply depressed.

I like Frances McDormand very much. Her cheekbones speak more than her mouth, and in here, the air she adopts of the titular character is splendid. She makes you wanna hate her and love her at the same time. Supported by the great Richard Jenkins and amusing Bill Murray, the story of the life of Mrs. Kitteridge is what we can relate to with our own lives. Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize winning novel gleams originality and its adaptation doesn't lag any behind.

The four episodes each talk about certain periods of her life and it ends with a very good moral. The characters hold truth in them and we start becoming judgmental, without even knowing it. Themes such as bereavement, depression, and paranoia is rampant in the series and you will be stunned to find connections between them.

The actors have been directed and shot well. The countryside locations serve as the perfect background for the story. I must say I am impressed by the whole cast and crew for giving me a piece of pie called Olive Kitteridge.

BOTTOM LINE: Not many people know about this series, and it will be my duty to recommend it to people who love original dramas that are not just crime-related a la Fargo (2014) and True Detective (2014).

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

I've just read some of the negative reviews about Olive Ketteridge. I thought it was obvious what we were getting into in the first 30 minutes of this brilliant mini series. Yes it's a bit downbeat. But Olive Ketteridge is about real people and real situations, and let's face it it reflects certain areas of real life. I think we've all known characters like the ones portrayed in Olive Ketteridge. All the performances are spot on. Plus there are many areas of Olive Ketteridge that made this viewer smile. So I don't see the negativity. Maybe the negative reviews come from people who wanted to see a Deloris Claybourne or a True Detctive. Olive Ketteridge is about love, loss and what ifs, and that's about it.. But it's told so well that one almost forgets that the story's so simple.

Family dysfunction reigns supreme in this oft-uncomfortable psycho-drama set in bucolic Maine over the course of 25 recent years. Nice, gentle, middle-aged pharmacist and sensitive, caring man married to a hard=edged, stern and very often mean schoolteacher who knows she is sick and "a beast" but cannot change her hurtful and often hateful ways, even to her own son who is obviously more like his dad, a nice boy scarred forever by his mother's mean words and insensitive nature. Depression "runs" in her family, she said, and it is easy to spot throughout in her as she suffers progressively from it as the story develops.

Frances McDormand shines bright in her demanding role as the hard-as-nails wife and mother who finds it so hard to show love or even "like" to her family, and she is always more than ready with a scathing snipe no matter the occasion or person, even at their son's wedding. Richard Jenkins is also very impressive as her good guy husband who is always nice, friendly and comforting to those around him who need it most. His Yin to her Yang, totally.

Coastal Massachusetts scenery subbing for Maine is stunning and beautifully shot. The script, though excellent and always engrossing, is often discomforting to watch, as there is little levity in it and things often get very serious and mean-spirited. No everyman crowd-pleaser this one, but it is very intelligently done and packs a hard and lasting, dysfunctional family/mental health punch for viewers expecting more from premium channel TV than silly laughs and chuckles from junk programming. Not many laughs here, just quality storytelling you will not easily forget.