quaint yet poignant story

After reading the book, i was delighted to discover there was a movie. Hopkins and Bankroft were the perfect actors for the roles they played. I am obsessed with books and work at a book store. Unfortunately there aren't many independents left so I'm at a chain but wouldn't trade working with books for anything so that is one reason this story attracted my attention. Another was the building of the relationship between the customer and the booksellers. Being able to get to know a person these days is a priviledge and a rarity. Usually customers are in such a hurry to get in and out of the store that if you come across one that actually has time to share a piece of themselves, it is so refreshing. I guess it goes both ways. I was touched by their correspondence and her sense of humor. The English didn't have quite the open sense of humor or sarcasm but it grew on them and they saw her intent was good and she cared about their well being by sending things they weren't able to get during war time. I really loved the movie and highly recommend it to all book lovers, writers, or anyone who sees the importance of relationships with everyone they come into contact with from day to day.

Bookaholics--just put that book down and watch this!

Several years ago, I took a bus tour through Scotland. My companions couldn't understand why I spent an entire evening on my own prowling the local bookstore instead of the pub. Truth is--when I was young and on a limited budget, I decided I'd rather buy books than booze. Honestly, I'd rather buy books than almost anything.

In the Scottish bookstore, I loved perusing books I knew to see how the cover art, binding, and paper differed from ours. Then, there were the UK-only editions, which that filled my spare suitcase on return. Pity I didn't find an antiquarian, I might have managed to stumble onto a shop similar to the one in this film.

Seeing this film, I so wish I had.

The story details the correspondence between Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins). Helene is a voracious reader and freelance writer who cannot find the English books she seeks in Manhattan. When she sees an ad for Marks and Co, a bookstore in London offering hard to find and out of print books, she writes. She receives a reply from Frank, an employee of the firm--and thus their nearly 30 years of correspondence begins.

Letters between Helene and Frank span everything from WWII and the food rationing to their respective sports teams. As times goes on, professional relationships turn into friendships--and a good deal of the authors' lives are shared in the correspondence in addition to book sales.

I would not recommend this film to a die-hard action and adventure fan, but for those of us who love books and would rather buy them than almost anything, it's a must-see. Bookstores like Marks and Co are a rare find--and growing rarer as Ebay and online presences take over the business. The story and the store are a refreshing trip to a past time. Very well done.

84 Charing Cross Road

It did a very neat turn as a film, speculating visually about
the home lives of the characters in a way the letters could not. It was very faithful to the book.