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.
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.