A nice, old-fashioned romance based on Helen Hanff’s popular 1980s play starring Anne Bancroft as Hanff, an American writer, and Anthony Hopkins as Frank, a London bookseller
The plot is simple, based on their touching, humorous correspondence from 1949 to the 1960s. Spoiler: the two never meet, but there are some ‘close calls’ to build some suspense as the viewer is drawn into their oddly full, but never complete relationship.
Much of this may be lost on today’s younger and post-2000 viewers who may wonder what the fuss is about and what the points of the movie are. But this is a quiet, pleasant, entertaining drama with realistic characters, good acting, and nice subtleties. Anyone seriously interesting in books and antiquarian reading will be quite satisfied by this well-directed film by David Jones. Recommended for readers, romantics, and old school film fans.