A charming, beautifully photographed modern fairy tale about love and gardening, This Beautiful Fantastic is worth seeing in spite of its dumb deterrent of a title. It’s an odd story about some very odd people guaranteed to grow on you. Written and directed with whimsical taste and obvious talent by Simon Aboud, the son-in-law of Paul McCartney, it’s different, gorgeous to look at, and you go away feeling good about life and lilacs. The centerpiece is a reclusive woman who dresses almost entirely in black. Her name is Bella Brown (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay). She was a foundling tended by a flock of ducks, rescued by an old man in the bulrushes by a lake and raised in a Catholic orphanage. Cut to Bella as a very strange adult indeed—an assistant librarian with a passion for order and precision with a dream of becoming an author of children’s books. One thing Bella has no interest in or talent for is horticulture.

When the garden behind the modest little house she rents turns to weeds, her irascible landlord threatens her with eviction unless she can pull the neglected garden to its former glory in 30 days. With the encouragement of Vernon (Andrew Scott), an Irish cook and widower with two daughters, she begins the arduous task of restoring the garden while enduring the insults of a curmudgeonly next-door neighbor, Alfie Stevenson (the great Tom Wilkinson). Eventually a color palette comes alive as the surly old man teaches Bella about life and love through the metaphor of gardening as the barren, vine-choking lot turns into a magical world of hollyhocks, delphiniums, and dahlias.

Stevenson turns out to be an unexpected but treasured ally, while Vernon keeps them all faithfully sated with béarnaise and blancmange. By the time it ends in a rainbow, Bella has experienced a new appreciation of happiness through nature, a fresh definition of friendship, and even romance—with an eccentric inventor of mechanical birds (the impossibly handsome Jeremy Irvine from War Horse, in nerd disguise) whose flying objects give Bella the inspiration she needs to write her first children’s novel.

It’s all a bit too precious for my taste, but it’s sweet as marzipan, dreamy to look at and warmed by performances that resonate.

A gem of a little movie about finding ones voice, not judging others before you get to know them, rediscovering lost passions and fulfilling one's potential. It almost has a quirky "Amelie" feel to it, with Jessica B. Findlay's portrayal of the seemingly OCD afflicted Bella, which is nicely counterpointed by Tom Wilkinson's irascible Alfie, her grumpy next door neighbor who has seemingly lost his love for everything but his precious back garden, and, he takes it quite personally that Bella has neglected hers, and let it wither away to weeds, not so much from neglect as for "fear and loathing" to use her words.

The two are thrown together when Bella, trying to retrieve a drawing left behind by the nerdy, but dashing Billy (Jeremy Irvine) at the Library where she works, which she then took home, where it unfortunately gets blown into her garden tree during a storm. She tries to retrieve it, but slips, and wakes up in Alfie's parlor, as she apparently knocked herself unconscious falling out of said tree, and was then retrieved by the grumpy old man who called his doctor. In the process we meet his house keeper/ cook Vernon, (Andrew Scott) who Alfie bullies, so, when he has to leave to pick up his daughters, Alfie insists he sweep up the dirt that Bella has tracked all over the carpet. Bella intervenes, and does it for him so he can leave.

Vernon shows up at Bella's the next morning to make her breakfast as a thank you for relieving him the previous evening, but, Alfie shows up making demands to the point that Vernon gives him a "be nice or I'll quit" ultimatum and so Alfie fires him, and impulsively, Bella tells him he can work for her. He agrees, and this sets up a tug of war for Vernon's services which escalates, culminating with Archie sicking the lease agent on Bella, who was going to evict her for not keeping up the garden, but, Vernon deftly wrangles her a 30 day reprieve, IF she restores the garden. But remember Bella has the proverbial BROWN thumb, and no gardening skills. What to do what to do?

Alfie the grump watches her struggle for several days, and then begins chiding her about her lack of skills, all the while demanding she "return Vernon", as if she stole him, or he was his property. Vernon it turns out is an accomplished cook, and Alfie has had to resort to cold cheese sandwiches and tinned stew. Eventually an "arrangement" is worked out to SHARE Vernon if he helps her get the garden back in shape. I realize that was a long set up, but, it is well worth the time it takes to watch it.

Other developments occur when Bella starts "catching feelings" for Billy the dashing nerd, which leads to mutual affection, confusion, hurt feelings, and eventually redemption, as Bella finally finds her voice, and her bliss., and Alfie rekindles his passion for life.

I quite enjoyed the movie, and didn't find it trite or cloying in the least. But then, I guess I never found being jaded and cynical attractive..

**There comes a time for everyone that changes the life forever.**

This is a very charming title if you are a fantasy film fan. Good looking film posters too from different languages for different regions. In a way, that was my reason to watch this, but anyway I would have seen it sooner or later being a cinephile. It was not a popular production, though the cast and storyline interested me more. They have categorised it as a modern day fairy-tale. But it was missing something. Something cinematically convince to its viewers. My best guess is 'stylish presentation'. Yep, it was a similar kind to 'Amélie', ' Citizen Dog' et cetera. It was not based on any book, but would have been a better format for such tale.

It was like those titles I mentioned in the previous paragraph which meets 'The Secret Garden'. Sadly, not well explored in its topics. For instance, the romance part was half-boiled. Funnily, I never knew the film trying to achieve that part. Of course it had a boy and a girl. In fact, three boys against one girl. But which path the narration is taking was well preserved till certain length of the film. Surely somewhat it was a fairy-tale, but most probably not like the one you would be anticipating. Especially in the initial stage, it bettered. Only later on it had started to fall back as a casual film.

The tale of a children's novelist. She is an orphan. Now being an adult, living independently in London, while working in a library. The story of her prior to land in the orphanage was a mystery. So basically she aspires to be a children's writer. Yet to write her first book. It was her normal lonely mechanical life, but one stormy day a trouble comes her way. The next door grumpy old man picking her for a verbal fight for several reasons and one of it were the neglected backyard. Now she has got a countdown to fix the issue. So the remaining the narrative focused on her undertaking, while the other side of her life, she's trying to get a close to an inventor.

> ❝Life and nature, it's just waiting to burst out anywhere it can, seeking light, getting on with it.❞

Definitely it should have been better. Not for just the cinephiles, but even normal people would feel that way. I don't know this filmmaker, but his direction was good, definitely not the writing skill. I think that's where it had failed mostly. It is still an above average, though if the screenplay, including dialogues was done better, then it would have been another level. Particularly, I did not like the transition between the scenes, events and the characters. One of the lines said at the final stage, after the story had taken a twist was poorly penned. That was the godfather of all the clichés, should have avoided at any cost.

By the way the actors were good. From Jessica Brown to Tom Wilkinson and other two did their respective roles finely. The synopsis says it is about an author, but the film explored different way. The entire film given preference to gardening. It took phases and were decent too. But at final stage it takes a twist by giving a convincing reason. But if that's what the whole story was relied on to surprise its viewer, then that's did not do its job as expected. Overall, the writing should have been improved to give the film a better chance to do well with the film goers.

Nonetheless, it is a watchable film. Especially I think women, family audience could enjoy it better. I would say the character Bella carried it all the way, despite Alfie jumped into the main storyline strongly in a mid way. The basic story was good enough. Bella is being a loner all her life, how suddenly everything has changed around her was the purpose of the film. Jessica Brown was a perfect choice for the role. She looked more beautiful than ever. Watch it for her, for the cast. Only a few people would feel they had seen a great film. It's just a good British film.

**6.5/10**