84 Charing Cross Road (1986)

Dear Anthony Hopkins, I have misplaced the coaster on my coffee table, and now guests are leaving rings on it from their coke bottles. Could you send me a copy of "Obscura's Compedium", for them to use instead? It would also serve as an excellent doorstop. Yours, Anne Bancroft.

Dear Mrs. Robinson, I have several copies of "Obscura's Compedium", but I plan on using them for firewood this winter. I have instead enclosed some Archie comic books. Is Jughead prematurely balding? That would explain the hat. Warmest regards, Hannibal Lector.

Imagine a hundred minutes worth of similar letters, read as voice overs by Hopkins and Bancroft. That's about all there is to 84 Charing Cross Road, a thoughtful and well scripted, but static and tedious film. While the ending may bring a tear to the sentimental eye, as the relationship of the long distance soul mates is at long last resolved, getting there will require great patience.

The true story is taken from the memoirs of Helene Hanff. Her book was adapted into a successful play. Hugh Whitemore later wrote the screenplay for a 1975 BBC television production, as well as this better-known adaptation.

Hanff (Bancroft) is a bookworm and struggling author who lives in New York City in the late 1940s. Unable to find out-of-print dusty tomes with sufficient character, she begins a correspondence with Frank Doel (Hopkins), the buyer for a modest English bookstore.

Their exchanged letters gradually become more intimate, and Hanff remains a customer for some twenty years. In love with books, Hanff is content with being a spinster. Frank is married to Nora (Judi Dench), a gentle but unremarkable mother of two children.

The low budget of 84 Charing Cross Road prevents the film from achieving the desired sense of nostalgia. The costumes and some old cars try to evoke the era of the 1950s and 1960s, but without much success. The major exception is a scene in which Bancroft cheers for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Yankees, while watching the game on television from a crowded sidewalk.

The period settings and platonic friendships were done better a few years later, in Driving Miss Daisy (1989). I was also reminded of You've Got Mail (1998), a lesser film which had book lovers involved in a long distance romance.

Surprisingly, Mel Brooks was the executive producer for 84 Charing Cross Road. While Brooks is known for slapstick comedies, any humor that this film has is either ironic or bittersweet. Brooks has long been married to Bancroft, which helps to explain his involvement. The film provided Bancroft with a plum role for a middle-aged actress, whom have been difficult to cast ever since Marie Dressler died in 1934.

While it did not receive any Oscar nominations, 84 Charing Cross Road was nominated for three British Academy Awards. Bancroft won Best Actress, while Dench and Whitemore were nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively. (58/100)