My House in Umbria
Tags: murder, storytelling, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) is an eccentric British romance novelist who lives in Umbria in central Italy, where she runs a pensione for tourists. Mrs Delahunty settled in Italy to flee from a somewhat traumatic past which still haunts her, and lives alone apart from a few servants and her manager Quinty (Timothy Spall). One day while taking a shopping trip to Florence, the train she is on is bombed by terrorists. After she wakes up in a hospital, she invites three of the other survivors of the disaster to stay at her villa for recuperation. Of these are "the General" (Ronnie Barker) a retired British Army veteran, Werner (Benno Fürmann), a young German photographer, and Aimee (Emmy Clarke), a young American girl who has now become mute after her parents were both killed in the explosion.
As the group recover from their ordeal (in which the General lost his daughter, and Werner lost his girlfriend and suffered considerable burns to his arm), the explosion is being investigated by Inspector Girotti (Giancarlo Giannini), a local policeman. Responding to the warmth and kindness of Mrs Delahunty and the others, Aimee begins to speak again, while the local authorities seek out any relatives who might be able to take her in. They eventually locate her uncle, Thomas Riversmith (Chris Cooper), a university professor in the US. He agrees to take Aimee back to the USA to live with his wife and himself, though they have little time for (and no experience with) raising children and are particularly concerned about trying to raise a child who has been through such a traumatic experience. Via flashbacks it is revealed that Mrs. Delahunty was an orphan who was molested as a child by her adoptive father. At a young age she fled England with a travelling salesman and spent years living as a prostitute before Quinty convinced her to move to Italy.
Mrs Delahunty grows to like her new housemates and invites the General and Werner to stay indefinitely. She also works hard to find common ground with Aimee's uncle and tries to convince him to leave Aimee with her in Italy rather than taking the child back to America to a loveless home. Meanwhile, Inspector Girotti discovers that Werner was involved in the terrorist attack on the train. Mrs Delahunty reluctantly admits that she has come to the same conclusion, but Werner departs in secret before he can be confronted. Although disappointed by the revelation, Mrs Delahunty is delighted to learn that the General intends to stay on and that Thomas has allowed Aimee to remain as well. The film ends with Mrs Delahunty embracing her new circumstances, having finally resolved her inner turmoil.
The plot departs substantially from that of William Trevor's somber novella.

Review: This film would immediately appeal to anyone addicted to Maggie Smith and the idyllic Italian countryside of Umbria, but it has unexpected delights to offer in its unassuming, almost art-house, flavour, and the low-key, but affecting, performances of excellent actors Timothy Spall and Ronnie Barker.
Chris Cooper is rather wooden, but his academic, unemotional character casts a strong contrast to the hapless vagaries of Maggie Smith's Emily Delahuntey, and therefore works well.Suspension of disbelief is required for the over-imaginative plot, almost out of one of Emily's romance novels.
'Enchanted April' also comes to mind as another film where the Italian countryside is almost a character of the film and much more than a backdrop.A very pleasant interlude for a winter's afternoon, or Spring evening, and Maggie Smith is as mannered and original as ever.
Not since "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" has Maggie Smith, nor maybe any other actress, created a character as memorable as Mrs. Emily Delahunty in "My House in Umbria."  Smith appears in virutally every scene and does a lot of voice-over narration, too boot.
Seeing Maggie Smith's character start the day with a wee glass of grappa and end her day with another is not exactly what we have come to expect from this marvelous actor but these twists in William Trevor's novella are precisely what the viewer is presented with throughout this wonderful film.
However, the resulting movie was better and more interesting than any I could have predicted-in part due to the remarkable acting of the cast.Maggie's character is the mover of the film and all events revolve around her.
Chris Cooper's character was also intrigued by this unfolding but he didn't find what he saw as interesting as I did.Try to watch this lovely, interesting film-you can spend your time in a theater in far worse ways..
Having just seen this film in the cinema, I have to say it didn't flag at all, and it was graced by one of Maggie Smith's greatest performances - and which fully deserved her Emmy award.
Released in the UK after the quaint "Ladies in Lavender" it was unfortunately seen by the critics as exactly the same kind of film - and so missing the point completely.Playing the troubled alcoholic, a vulnerable ageing romance novelist, Smith is on amazing form.
If this makes me sound like a Smith groupie, I have to point out that I disliked intensely this actress's mannered caricatures in such films as "Tea with Mussolini" or "Washington Square" (though, faced with the awful scripts, maybe she decided just to push it for laughs...).
After Smith's Emmy award, it was criminal that Meryl Streep robbed Dame Maggie at the Golden Globes for her raiding of the dressing-up box in "Angels in America".For the supporting cast, Ronnie Barker, Timothy Spall, and Chris Cooper are all superb: understated, natural, and working in a brilliant ensemble.
The way the she carried the commentary through to her flashbacks which added so much reality - her whole character to this part endured you to being a guest at her house in Umbria.Wonderful Ronnie Barker who is now dearly missed - played the part as the General with much richness, great looks and expressions sometimes without dialogue.
The music was not to intrusive but matched the sunny scenes portrayed in Italy but most prominent of awards, with respect to Dame Maggie Smith must go to director Richard Loncraine for his excellent if not too gentle but stunning direction and allowing the warmth of the plot to ooze through the screen to its viewers..
This most human and moving story is beautifully played out by a superb cast of character actors including surprisingly Ronnie Barker as the general.
William Trevor's story was complex and involved a train wreck and the adaptation of the inner voice of the principal, Mrs. Emily Delahunty, played magnificently by Maggie Smith, must have been an enormous challenge.
Maggie does wondrously in this, both in her speculations on the lives around her and the deep dark secrets of her own past.The plot briefly, is that the survivors of a bomb on a rail carriage come together in Mrs. Delahunty's B&B in the poppy strown fields of Umbria in Italy: A retired widower general (an incredibly touching performance by the comedian Ronnie Barker) who loses his daughter, a German who loses his new love and a little girl who loses her parents.How this oddball mix of people bond so very slowly into a new, loving formation is the crux of the story and the Maguffin is the arrival of the child's estranged uncle, Tom Riversmith (an amazing Chris Cooper) who has never met his niece due to his own family dysfunction.Maggie is amazing as she sometimes lurches around accompanied by a glass of grappa and reveals bits and pieces of her own heart breaking childhood and through the power of the grappa makes come-ons to a cold and aloof John who recoils from her passion and eccentricity.
The HBO TV movie "My House in Umbria" should be seen primarily for the complex and layered performance of divine Maggie Smith.
That self is revealed slowly, and we find hidden within a character that is not only at variance with Miss Delahunty's adopted persona, but also very different from the prim and proper ladies Maggie Smith habitually plays on the silver screen.
I am reminded of Glenda Jackson's (virtual) one-woman show in "Stevie" and Joanne Woodward's voice-over of "The Age of Innocence".The rest of the characters in "My House in Umbria" are, alas, a motley crew, sketched in only very lightly, merely second bananas to Maggie Smith's central figure.
Too many reviews here and in print misinterpret My House in Umbria as another sweet movie in the Big Scenery genre, too few emphasize the film's essential theme of fictions and illusions.
Maggie Smith as romance writer Emily Delahunty is sympathetic and believable, a woman who survived many travails in Europe, including childhood abuse.
And it is sometimes even good to have wrong idea about what you're going to see, because you can be pleasantly surprised.My House in Umbria sounded as it was happening on the beginning of 20th century, either in castle full of aristocrats (like Age of Innocence) or in deserted house with poor artists having no money to leave (Stealing Beauty; Sirens).
And, maybe as the only influence he was able to let himself implement, he makes an unexpected choice at the end, realizing that though this community is strange and odious to him, it's not necessary worthless, and it might be wrong forcing someone to replace this warmth and caring love with his scientifically precise but cold, emotionless world.Something, however, didn't change from the beginning: Maggie Smith is still so Ms Marpleish that I was expecting at least one small murder which she could solve.
And all people living in House in Umbria might have been imagined by Agatha Christie, actors (Barker, Spall, Dazzy, Cooper) ideal for Poirot's suspects and even Giannini as inspector could pass well as inspector Japp.But at the end I didn't mind lack of murder.
The storyline is basic, almost simplistic, but the direction allows the actors to add value where it counts.Maggie Smith is delightful as the aged authoress, with a penchant for Grappa who, after a bomb explodes on a train, offer the survivors of her compartment, recuperation at her home in Umbria.The Italian countryside is simply magnificent, the photography of Maggie Smith's villa and its surrounds(or should I say Mrs Delahunter's villa) gives a beautiful feeling of a somewhat tired place of residence for a somewhat tired individual, who has been there and done that but in a rather upper class British way.
Well-established and wealthy author of paperback romance novels, Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) resides in an almost palatial home in Umbria with a devoted staff including a jack-of-all-trades, Quinty (Timothy Spall).
Emily is English but she lived in exotic places before abandoning Albion for the sun drenched vista of rural Italy.Emily regularly takes a train to shop in a nearby city and her ticket brings her into a compartment with an assortment of passengers including a retired British general (Ronnie Barker) and his daughter, a young German and his girlfriend and an American couple with their eight-year-old daughter, Aimee (Emmy Clarke).
A patient detective shows up occasionally but his sleuthing skills are equaled by Emily's dream sequences which are remarkably prescient.No need to say more about the plot."My House in Umbria" benefits from a very strong cast and good direction by Richard Loncraine who, after all, had the landscape and real estate working double-time for him.
Since the Italian authorities want the survivors to stay in the country during the investigation, Mrs. Delahunty invites them all to stay with her in her country house in Umbria.What follows is a nuanced exploration into each character's psyche as they recover from their physical and psychological wounds, And not everyone is who they appear to be; there are secrets.
Based on a small masterpiece by William Trevor and starring Maggie Smith, the film potentially could have been a major triumph of adaptation for HBO pictures, who have lately been trailing behind Showtime in the world of quality in-house movies.
Unfortunately, HBO took a great book, a wonderful cast, and the single most incredible screen debut by a child-actor since Tatum O'Neill in "Paper Moon", and decimated it on the rocks of a bad script.Maggie Smith, by every measure the powerhouse of the film, shines in the first half of the film.
But by the time the make-shift family the survivors have formed is interrupted by the appearance of Amy's uncle, Tom Riversmith (Chris Cooper), I suspect many of the film's audience will have flipped the channel, which is sad, considering that those who flip channels will miss the muted, yet gifted, performance of Carlo Gianinni.The standout performance of the film, and about the only thing that makes this movie worth watching, is the performance of Emmy Clarke, a newcomer to films and entertainment.
Not only was the scenery beautiful, but Dame Smith created a complex individual with a definite edge and Chris Cooper stayed in character throughout.
A great vehicle for Maggie Smith in a quintessential survivor movie, "My House in Umbria" delineates her flowering as an "earth mother" among the victims of a train bombing.
Yet apart from the final scenes the producers have stuck fairly closely to Trevor's storyline, and Maggie Smith in particular manages to create a character, Emily Delahunty, at least recognizable from the novel, a vibrant but rather hollowed out survivor of a tough and colourful life.It is 1987 (according to the novella, anyway – the film is a bit vaguer about time) and Mrs Delahunty "56 years old" lives in Umbria where she lets out rooms in her magnificent country villa and churns out "Romance novels" a la Barbara Cartland.
The survivors are an elderly English gent, called the General (Ronnie Barker), a young German man with severe burns, Werner (Otlar in the book and played here by Benno Furmann) and Aimee (Emmy Clarke), a beautiful eight year old, who is physically unharmed but unable to speak after her parents have died in the explosion.
It is my understanding from the novel that the character Maggie Smith plays is living in an illusion, and we are not supposed to believe her interpretations of events.
The Maggie Smith-Chris Cooper by-play was top notch.
Maggie Smith, finally given a role where she doesn't play a stiff upper-crust snoot, is also the central character in this touching story about an aging lady who takes in and cares for a group of victims who like herself, survived a terrorist attack on the train she was traveling on.Smith portrays Mrs Emily Delahunty, a blithe and carefree spirit who is also the author of several tawdry romance novels and one that cannot say no to a drink.
A tragic trip on a train-ride across the country-side ends in turmoil when her cabin is struck by a terrorist bombing.Upon her recovery in the hospital, she befriends the small group of survivors who shared the same train cabin as she, including an elderly British gentleman known as The General (Ronnie Barker), a young German journalist known as Werner (Benno Furmann) and a little girl rendered mute from the tragedy known as Amy. It is the special bond Emily and Amy form that is the central story-line to this film, as Emily coaxes her to regain her memory and to speak again.Barker and Furmann provide formidable characters as the two men drawn into Emily's enchanting world.
Although this story is not exactly a whodunnit mystery, it does seem rather out of place to be entwined with the story-line involving Emily and Amy's friendship.Chris Cooper appears later in the film as Amy's Uncle Tom who has come from America to claim her under his guardianship.
"My House in Umbria" is all about Maggie Smith as a novelist and charming eccentric with a past who inhabits a rustic Italian villa.
As first impressions, I didn't know what to expect and the title of the film seemed boring, but I loved Dame Maggie Smith so I gave the movie a chance.Based on a novel by William Trevor is about a sophisticated, vulnerable, eccentric Authoress called Mrs Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) who is on her way to Milan on a monthly shopping trip with acquaintances on a carriage 219, they were about to look forward to the day in their own way until a bomb exploded on the carriage.
Delahunty, Werner the young German (Benno Fürmann), General (Ronnie Barker), traumatised although unscathed but gone mute from the horror is 8 year old American Girl Aimee (Emmy Clarke) who are survivors.
Maggie Smith is tremendous as always and is ably supported by Ronnie Barker who disappears into his character in the way he does when doing comedy , Timothy Spall and the beautiful Emily Clarke who has grown into a gorgeous young woman.
Made from a novel by Irish writer William Trevor (whom I need to check out) "My House in Umbria" is about a group of train passengers who survive bomb attack.None of these people knew each other from before and as they recover in Italian hospital, gentle eccentric romance novel writer Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) decides to take this little bruised group in her Umbria house - she lives alone in a beautiful country side house and loves the idea that perhaps nature and silence would heal the wounds of this unexplained, brutal attack.
The cast is excellent but it is Maggie Smith who stands head and shoulders above everybody else as her character (sweet, lonely soul tormented by memories) tries to help people who only yesterday were strangers on a train and suddenly had turned into friends connected with survival.
Her own life was all but romantic as we slowly find out, nevertheless she writes love stories with happy endings and creates her own reality, believes in dreams and astrology - the character of Thomas Riversmith (Chris Cooper) is her direct opposite as American scientist who has different outlook at life, laughs at her little eccentrics and in general has no patience for people like her.
Dame Maggie Smith plays a successful British author who travels on train with a group of unsuspecting passengers.
I love Maggie Smith and her performance was one of her best roles in years.
A very slow movie of an old woman, played by Maggie Smith, who survives a train explosion, together with several other people.
The big names in the movie, like Maggie Smith and Chris Cooper, can't save it.Worth seeing?
The characters are not very likable (to put it mildly...), and even the most gifted ones (Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, Chris Cooper and Giancarlo Giannini) are effectively dragged down and their abilities trampled by the leaden script and the absolute lack of talent of some of the other actors.
I loved the way Maggie Smith, in character, tells her version of each life she touches.
Firstly, let me say that I am a devoted fan of Maggie Smith, whose presence in any film is always a big plus, as she adds so much class to whatever role she plays.
It is wonderful to see a film make good use of the talents of Maggie Smith.
While crucial to the plot, it's less a mystery of who bombed the train as much as the evolution of both Aimee's and Mrs Delahunty's characters as one begins to open up to communication and the other stops living a life of fantasy and fiction and begins to see things as they truly are.If it weren't for its cute ending, MY HOUSE IN UMBRIA would be perfect -- most of the time, life is less about an ending which satisfies.
Both are excellent in this intimate film.Broadcast on HBO, MY HOUSE IN UMBRIA was nominated for nine Emmys including Best Actress for 2003 and marks yet another of Dame Maggie Smith's gorgeous, detailed performances..
Maggie Smith plays a novelist of "Bodice Rippers" told by one character in the film.
Anyone who loves Maggie Smith or enjoys movies with romantic European settings should have an opportunity to understand what they are getting.
Dame Maggie Smith really carried the film, she did an excellent job.
However, I think they all did very well in their roles especially the actress who played Amy. Also, the setting of this movie in Umbria, Italy is beautiful and really gives it an almost surreal quality.
That's not the case here, an award winning cable TV movie that shows the lady in her, minus snarky remarks and filled with a huge amount of love.Dame Maggie is a novelist who manages to survive a bombing on the train she's traveling on, and unlike her cold spinster in "A Room With a View", she is filled with hospitality, offering other survivors the openness if her house in Umbria.
However, for an old General (Ronnie Barker) and a handsome, quiet German young man, Smith has time for everybody, and they all come to adore her.