Enchanted April (1992)

82% of critics liked it
(28 reviews)
80% of users liked it
(7,217 ratings)

Previously filmed in 1935 with Ann Harding, Enchanted April, a romantic novel by Elizabeth, was remade in 1992. The first film skips along superficially at 66 minutes: the second, directed by the always intriguing Mike Newell, runs 101 minutes, allowing for richer characterizations and a bottomless… More Previously filmed in 1935 with Ann Harding, Enchanted April, a romantic novel by Elizabeth, was remade in 1992. The first film skips along superficially at 66 minutes: the second, directed by the always intriguing Mike Newell, runs 101 minutes, allowing for richer characterizations and a bottomless reserve of brilliant dialogue. Two cloistered, married English women (Josie Lawrence, Miranda Richardson) impulsively rent an Italian villa and embark upon a vacation without their spouses. They are joined by two other ladies: the high-flown aging widow Joan Plowright, and elegant upper-crust beauty Polly Walker) whom they've never met. Under the spell of an exotic new location, the foursome are in for quite a few life-altering experiences, many of them amusing, and not a few very surprising. Impeccably accurate in its recreation of European manners and mores in the 1920s, Enchanted April is sheer bliss from fade-in to fade-out. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Mike Newell
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy

In Theaters: Apr 5, 1992 Wide
On DVD: May 5, 2009
Studio: Miramax

Critic Reviews

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
In a raucous movie summer, this is a film for those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine, and a recollection of a time when women and movies could be purveyors of enchantment.
Variety Staff, Variety
Strong cast's reliable playing is undercut by a script that dawdles over well-trod territory.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
The ladies are well bred, the scenery is lovely and the dialogue is polished and polite. It helps that the same villa in Portofino where Miss von Armin wrote the novel has been used to fine effect as the film's principal setting.
Hal Hinson, Washington Post
Is it fair to ask why usually sophisticated Americans turn to mush over this particular variety of moribund ersatz art?
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Personalities clash but are cheerfully reconciled, and marital tensions are swiftly resolved.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
It would seem from a spate of films lately that the English can only find their warmer, truer selves abroad -- usually in Italy. Enchanted April takes this familiar path, but traipses along with charm and glory, as if for the very first time.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
The whole thing seems like it was dreamed up during a sleepy afternoon by the Italian seaside, and is guaranteed to put viewers into a similarly soporific state.
, Film4
An undeniably pretty but ultimately vacant period drama.
S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media
Elegant period film explores deep emotions.
Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures
It reminded me of the introspective but otherwise soft-hitting stories that my mother reads in her monthly book club. It's a rich film, but not the kind of rich that I like.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Thematically, Mike Newell's film is similar to A Room With a View, focusing on the liberating impact of an Italian vacation on repressed, downtrodden Brit femmes, well acted by Joan Plowright, Miranda Richardson and Polly Walker.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
There are so many well-acted, well-filmed movies that charm, I found myself wondering why this one didn't.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
One can't help but start planning a vacation immediately after the film ends
Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
The disc's sole special feature is a full-length audio commentary by director Mike Newell and producer Ann Scott, unless you count a collection of movie trailers.
Brian Webster, Apollo Guide
Like April weather most places north of the Mediterranean, this one is lukewarm, at best.
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
... behind that precious romanticism is a genuine commitment to this emotional renewal.
, Time Out
Personalities clash but are cheerfully reconciled, and marital tensions are swiftly resolved.
Nell Minow, Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies
Exquisite -- it will bloom inside you the way Italy blooms inside the characters.
Michael Drakulich, Star Newspapers (Chicago, IL)
Beautifully filmed and acted with a pleasant, wry sense of humor about it. Mirand Richardson shows why she is one of our greatest living actresses.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Pleasant, but awfully thin

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Robert C

A period 'romantic comedy' with an amazing ensemble cast. Funny, romantic and a little magical. THe Italian countryside is GORGEOUS!
jay n

charming
Dannielle A

A delightful movie. Very quotable, funny, and relaxing to watch.
Cinema F

The Enchanted April is quirky, full of humour, of misunderstandings, of instances of characters miscommunicating and misjudging one another's intentions. Yet it's also charming and sweet which candidly explores, albeit somewhat lightheartedly, the heartache four women are… More
The Enchanted April is quirky, full of humour, of misunderstandings, of instances of characters miscommunicating and misjudging one another's intentions. Yet it's also charming and sweet which candidly explores, albeit somewhat lightheartedly, the heartache four women are nursing caused by aging, marital neglect, and the like. Based on the 1921 novel by Elizabeth von Armin, the film centers on Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence), a shabby middle-class wife, blessed with a self-proclaimed magical ability to see into people. When her eyes catch a newspaper ad for a month in an Italian villa, she immediately thinks of her downtrodden neighbor Rose Arbuthnot (Miranda Richardson). To save money, two other eccentric femmes join this couple: the haughty widow Mrs. Fisher (Joan Plowright) and the alluring society lady, Caroline Dester (Polly Walker), who is the opposite of all the others. When they wake up in their villa after a rainy nighttime arrival (Britain still seems to follow them like a cloud), they open their windows to a sunny spring morning on the Italian coast, the hills exploding in flowers and foliage, the Mediterranean waters a captivating azure catching the sun with white accents. It's a fairy tale awakening for them in every way. "It's this place," says Lawrence's newly recharged character. Then the film slips into internal monologues to tell us about the transformations the characters are going through and they seem so unnecessary so much of the time, mostly because the observations are already so apparent to the eye. And when the husbands arrive, the old romances are recharged and relationships rekindled with newfound respect and affection, if not for the commitment and compassion and generosity of Mike Newell's direction. It's not about escape or rebirth, it's about renewal and appreciation, with all the restraint we've come to expect in the oh-so-British manner of period movies, but behind that precious romanticism is a genuine commitment to this emotional renewal. This is an earnest movie about personality transformation, self-renewal and life lessons about female camaraderie.
Leo L

A favorite.