Hampstead movie review

With the passing of Diane Keaton I decided that I would watch some of her old work.

I chose to watch the 2017 movie Hampstead as it seemed to be quite a good representation of her acting skills. 

It is based loosely (trying not to give the plot away, however it did come out eight years ago!) on Harry Hallowes real life, he used to live on a plot in Hampstead Heath and then managed to claim rights on it. 

One of the best parts of this movie was the chemistry between Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson.

It felt natural and not strained which definitely made it more believable for me.

Their chemistry also helped make their characters seem more natural making their performance that much better. 

I’m not one who normally enjoys romantic (some may say sappy) movies but the mixture of romance and social justice themes in this movie made it not too uncomfortable.

It gives the audience a feel-good time with us feeling like we are doing something right, due to us deciding that Gleeson’s character is right.

It made me feel like I was standing up for the underdog and marginalised communities.

I found it quite clever how they made it an easy movie to watch, not too many sad themes, while also fitting in the themes of community and standing up for the right thing.

I would say that if you are feeling a bit down then this would be a very good movie too watch. 

A perfect movie for a light matinee

As a nature person, the setting of this film was spectacular.

I really liked the idea of an expanse of nature so close to a city.

It creates a very picturesque backdrop for the movie which further added to the warmthness portrayed throughout the movie.

I especially liked where Keaton’s character ended up living in the end. 

However, as always there are critics.

With this movie one of the big critiques was that the story was very predictable and followed the same formula that a lot of other romance movies used.

There was just too many cliches which made it painful for the audience to witness again and due to the lack of surprises it was not the most engaging film to watch.

This goes hand in hand with the fact that the characters where more broad and stereotypical than they should have been. 

The other big critique from this movie was that people thought it lacked tone and depth, saying that while it did touch on different societal problems such as eviction, class divide and property divide it didn’t pronounce it enough.

It felt a bit like dipping one toe into the water of the problems.

While I do agree that it didn’t delve deep into the problems society faces, I didn’t think that was what the movie was about or what the directors were trying to get across to the audience.

I believe that it was simply highlighting these issues in an easy to understand way.