A quiet connection is made in beautifully acted scenes between Mortimer and Nighy, scenes that will take your breath away.Ĭoixet goes for a similar effect with the close relationship that develops between childless Florence and Christine (Honor Kneafsey), a young village girl who becomes Florence’s helper at the shop. Edmund recognizes Florence’s courage, her noble character, and Florence sees the depth of Edmund’s socially awkward character, too. In the hands of writer-director Isabel Coixet (“My Life Without Me”), adapting the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, the plot trudges along as we await the ways Florence will be victimized by small-minded people.īut in the middle of this situation we have Bill Nighy as dour, reclusive misanthrope Edmund Brundish, who starts ordering books from Florence and eventually befriends her. That’s the gist of the story: a battle of wills between book-loving, well-intended Florence and the power-driven bully Violet. Violet schemes, with the help of her minions, to boot Florence out of the building so she can start an arts center there. But Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), a wealthy control freak who pulls the strings in town and doesn’t like when others don’t bend to her will, has other plans. A widow, Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), decides to act on her longtime dream and open a bookshop there in a longtime vacant historical home. The setting: an English seaside town in the late 1950s. But some of its scenes and performances are such gems that it almost doesn’t matter. Watching “The Bookshop” can at times feel like a chore.
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