Product: The Tide of Life
Rating: 5.0
Tide of Life a Lovely Voyage
This film, an adaptation of the Catherine Cookson novel of the same name, is a three part miniseries detailing the changing fortunes of a young housekeeper, Emily Kennedy, played by Gillian Kearney. The time period is the Victorian era. Emily Kennedy learns about life and love through relationships with three very different men. Forced from the home of her first employer Sep McGilby (John Bowler) after his plans to marry Emily come to a tragic end, Emily finds work as a housekeeper with a farmer, Larry Birch (Ray Stevenson) and his crippled wife Rona (Diana Hardcastle), in Croft Dene House, a place which holds many secrets. Eventually after a strange turn of events, wholesome Emily defies convention to share a life in a rundown cottage with Larry Birch. I did not like this part of the movie, and I knew where the situation was going to end with Birch. As upright and clear minded as Emily was, it was difficult for me to believe that she would be willing to sacrifice her dignity for Birch after all the time she had known him as his housekeeper. Throughout the movie, one is given conflicting evidence about Birch's character. Emily is initially curt when she meets the new owner of Croft Dene House, Nick Stuart, played by the always charismatic James Purefoy, who in this role is just about his most handsome (very becoming Rhett Butleresque wardrobe and thin moustache). Emily is curt, but is eventually won over by the charming and compassionate Nick Stuart. The tide shifts again, and Nick gives Emily a way to take control of her future.