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GENUINE cinematic charm, as opposed to box-office driven Hollywood cuteness, is relatively rare nowadays.
So, all praise to everyone involved on both sides of the camera for this appealing adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s 1930 novel about the adventures of four upper-crust youngsters holidaying and sailing in the Lake District.
There they learn self-reliance, competing with fellow lake navigators the Amazons and, for good measure, foiling foreign spies as well.
In introducing the espionage subplot, director Philippa Lowthorpe and scenarist Andrea Gibb have sensibly stuck to Ransome’s creations.
The youngsters Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen, Bobby McCulloch, Seren Hawkes and Dane Hughes are delightfully unpretentious while adults Kelly Macdonald as their mother, Rafe Spall’s rollicking Captain Flint and Andrew Scott’s enemy spy hit every family-film note.
Period detail is convincing and, while cynical modern kids might wonder at the inherent niceness, nostalgic parents should enjoy themselves.
AF
