Themes: Golden Years, Women's Friendship, Journey of Self-Discovery
Main Cast: Jessica Tandy, Bridget Fonda, Elias Koteas, Maury Chaykin, Graham Greene
Release Year: 1994
Country: UK/CA
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Jessica Tandy made one of her final screen appearances in this comic road movie. Freda (Bridget Fonda) is a would-be singer and songwriter who would like a career as a performer but lacks the courage; it doesn't help that her husband Vincent (Elias Koteas), a graphic artist, keeps insisting that her interest in music is merely a hobby. Hoping to put some spark back into their marriage, Freda and Vincent take a vacation to Georgia, where they meet Camilla (Jessica Tandy), who lives in the main house near their cottage. Freda discovers that Camilla was once a musician; she claims to have enjoyed a stellar career as a concert violinist in her native Canada, and she knew only the best people (although Freda isn't sure that she believes all Camilla's stories, especially Ghandi's fondness for enemas). While Vincent gets involved in a business deal with Camilla's son Harold (Maury Chaykin), who produces sleazy exploitation films, Camilla regales Freda with stories about her greatest triumph, performing the Brahms Violin Concerto at Toronto's Winter Garden Theater. When Camilla discovers that the Brahms concerto is to be performed soon at the Winter Garden, Camilla and Freda decide that this is something they should see, and the pair hits the road to the Great White North, meeting a remarkable variety of people along the way. Tandy's husband and frequent co-star Hume Cronyn has a supporting role as one of Camilla's former beaus; it was their last picture together. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
As a film, Camilla is, at best, average, the kind that a person can watch while doing something else without ever worrying that he or she will have missed an important or unexpected plot turn. As a showcase for the talents of the late Jessica Tandy, however, Camilla works very well. Tandy is positively luminous in what would turn out to be her last starring role on the big screen, taking situations that have been used in film for years and making them seem fresh and, at times, even magical. Tandy is even able to pull off a skinny-dipping scene that, in other hands, would come across as embarrassing, coy, or campy. There's a glow radiating from Tandy, a ferocious attachment to living life to the fullest that is practically palpable and goes a long way toward making the by-the-numbers twists of the plot palatable. Although Camilla is a buddy movie, the part of Freda is fairly thankless. Yet Bridget Fonda does quite well with it; she's especially effective in those moments when she merely registers her character's reaction to and enjoyment of her newfound, strange friend. If she's less effective when her character is going through the angst of deciding about her career, it's largely due to a failure in the writing, not in the actress. Deepa Mehta has directed with sensitivity, if less imagination, than one would hope, and the supporting cast is generally good. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Bollywood/Hollywood (2002) • The Republic of Love (2003) • Heaven on Earth (2008) • What's Cooking, Stella? (2008) • Exclusion (2009) • Midnight's Children (TBA)
