This Beautiful Fantastic

2018 • 91 minutes

About this movie

Bella Brown is a beautifully quirky young woman who dreams of writing and illustrating a successful children's book. Despite her abandonment as a child, the all consuming OCD, her unfulfilled dreams, her awful boss at the library and her paralysing fear of flora and fauna, Bella is down but not out. She has a spark, an edge, a talent and a voice that we can feel from the get go. This girl has an unearthly survival instinct, having been found in the middle of winter in the middle of Hyde Park as a baby. When Bella is forced by her landlord to deal with her neglected garden or face eviction, she meets her nemesis, match and mentor in Alfie Stephenson, a cantankerous, loveless, rich old man who lives next door and is an amazing horticulturalist and here the most unlikely of friendships begins. A friendship grows between the reclusive, agoraphobic young woman and the curmudgeonly old widower, set against the backdrop of a beautiful garden in the heart of London where everything seems possible. Containing an all-star cast, featuring Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey, Harlots), Jeremy Irvine (The Railway Man, War Horse), Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Spectre, Pride), Anna Chancellor (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Happy Prince) and Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel).

Ratings and reviews

This film surprised and delighted me. I funny and poinient story, timeless in its setting but delivers a deep feel good factor. This is so not Hollywood and refreshingly so.