84 Charing Cross Road

Dir: David Jones

1987

*****

Written by Hugh Whitemore, based on the stage-play by James Roose-Evans which in turn was based on the memoirs of Helene Hanff, 1987's 84 Charing Cross Road incorporates the best of both worlds, high-lighting the wonderful dialogue of the play and the real life characters of the book, beautifully. Even though the book and the stage play were both big hits on both sides of the pond, it all seems like a bit of a flimsy premise but there is nothing flimsy about it at all. Far from it. Watching it makes me feel incredibly nostalgic, not that I ever visited 84 Charing Cross Road or indeed were alive to see London or New York in the 50s or 60s. I fell in love with the 'Big Apple' and the 'Big Smog' through film and literature and as an adult I've become quite protective and critical of both, so to see the two cousins, and what I love about them the most, depicted in a such a sweat, tender and touching way couldn't have made me feel warmer or indeed fuzzier. I'm old enough to remember the dusty but genteel London of yesteryear and I fell in love with New York City long ago thanks to old and not so old movies but the characters I know, I think most people do. Funnily enough, the two main characters, Helene Hanff (played by the brilliant Anne Bancroft) and Frank Doel (the equally brilliant Anthony Hopkins) could have been my grandparents. Their house was big and full of books, my grandmother full of life and colour and my grandfather a quiet and dignified gentleman. Both had a great sense of humour and a life of stories to tell. I miss them, the London I grew up in and the New York I never saw immensely. 84 Charing Cross Road is a little window into that era that I love and would desperately love to revisit. It could be said that the overall message of the film is to strike when the iron is hot, never regret anything and live the moment, although if Helene Hanff had done so we would never have this heart-warming but heart-breaking story. There is something flawed but poetic about it, the best kind of melancholy. Sometimes the premise of what could have been is better, the anticipation being better than the reality. Helene Hanff and Frank Doel (New York and London) are completely different but both were daydreamers who could get lost in the poems of Thomas Wyatts and the Eassys of William Hazlitt, both had a love for words, maybe it was right that they only communicated through their letters but it is impossible not to imagine what it would have been like if they had met in real life. Both have now passed on, the cities are different but the story continues in many respects. I love the simplicity and the creativity the story invokes, the viewer essentially carries on the story in their own minds and the possibilities are endless. It's why the book and stage play were so well received and the film captures it perfectly too. As I write this review I am about a fifteen minute walk from 84 Charing Cross Road and even though I must have walked past it I've made a point never to ever acknowledge it. I believe it is a fast food outlet but I couldn't say for sure, I've never looked, I don't have to, because in my mind it is still a lovely little book shop that I'm sure I'll visit one day.