FAR FAR AWAY

Were you an Enid Blyton fan? As a child, I was an avid reader of the Secret Seven and the Famous Five books. I even have a charming take-off on my bookshelf:


But I didn't ever read The Magic Faraway Tree. So when a film version was released with such wonderful British/Irish actors as Claire Foy and Nicola Couglan, Simon Russel Beale and Lenny Henry, I had to brave the school holiday crowds and go and see it. Susan and I were the only group without children but we didn't look as suspicious as if we'd been two older men sitting in a cinema enjoy the charms of fairies and elves and pixies.

It was a delightful piece of story telling that deals with the challenges parents are having to cope with all over the world - children addicted to technology. Even the forthcoming Toy Story 5 is exploring that problem. [We saw the short while we were waiting for the main film.] Of course, having a magic tree nearby and access to worlds of spells and goodies and birthday wishes does make it easier to put down one's phone. 

The best word to describe the film is whimsical - playful, fanciful, endearing, amusing. There's a nice story-telling balance between the world of the adults and the perspective of the children so you don't have to be young to enjoy it. Just, to use that that traditional phrase, young at heart.




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