Themes: Age Disparity Romance, Social Climbing, Vacation Romances
Main Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox, Uma Thurman, Alida Valli, Alessandro Gassman
Release Year: 1995
Country: UK
Run Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
This romantic comedy is set upon Italy's beautiful Lake Como just before WW II erupted in Europe. British, middle-aged, but still-attractive Miss Bentley has come to the lake to visit the family resort. She has not been there since her father died and since her 14-year relationship with a married man broke up. The place has changed since she was there last and there is only one other Britisher there, the single, handsome Major Winslow, a wealthy industrialist. He and she engage in a few rounds of tennis, and begin a tentative romance that is interrupted when flirtatious American-upstart Miss Beaumont shows up and begins toying catlike, with the affections of the vulnerable major. Meanwhile, Miss Bentley finds herself dallying with a handsome young Italian. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
24 years ago, in 1913, single spinster Miss Bentley (played by Vanessa Redgrave) enjoyed spending her summer holiday in Lake Como, Italy with her father before World War I started in 1914. The year is now 1937, and her father has recently died. To clear the air after her father's loss, she's decided to return to Lake Como on her own to spend a month's summer holiday.
She soon meets an upstanding bachelor named Major Wilshaw (played by Edward Fox), and sets her interest in him. But soon afterwards, a young American girl named Miss Beaumont (played by Uma Thurman) arrives, and starts flirting with the Major.
Award Nomination
In 1996, the actress Vanessa Redgrave was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture in this film.
