Themes: Stop the Wrecking Ball, Mythical Creatures, Unlikely Friendships
Main Cast: John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Mark Williams, Hugh Laurie, Bradley Pierce
Release Year: 1997
Country: UK
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Peter Hewitt (Tom and Huck) directed this $30-million family film, an adaptation of Mary Norton's classic children's novels about a miniature family of wee folk, four inches high, living beneath the floorboards of an English cottage. The Borrowers family, so labeled because they "borrow" from the house's kitchen, consist of Pod Clock (Jim Broadbent), mother Homily (Celia Imre), and children Arrietty (13-year-old Flora Newbigin) and Peagreen (Tom Felton). Their adventure begins when they're almost caught in the kitchen by the Lenders, the tenants of the house, so they run for cover. When lawyer-Realtor Ocious P. Potter (John Goodman) discovers the owner of the house has died, he makes plans to evict the Lenders and demolish the building -- a situation where one would want to "neither a Borrower nor a Lender be." Fortunately, young Pete Lender (Bradley Pierce) has become friends with Arrietty -- an alliance leading toward a method of thwarting Potter. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Flora Newbigin - Arrietty Clock; Tom Felton - Peagreen Clock; Raymond Pickard - Spiller; Celia Imrie - Homily Clock; Aden Gillett - Joe Lender; Doon Mackichan - Victoria Lende; Ruby Wax - City Hall Clerk; Andrew Dunford; Bob Goody; Patrick Monkton; Dick Ward; George Yiassoumi
Credit
James Morahan - Supervising Art Director, Nina Gold - Casting, Liza Chasin - Co-producer, Debra Hayward - Co-producer, Marie France - Costume Designer, Gareth Tandy - First Assistant Director, Peter Hewitt - Director, John Roberts - Second Unit Director, David Freeman - Editor, Annie Kocur - Editor, Walt de Faria - Executive Producer, Joan Hills - Hair Styles, Mary Richards - Line Producer, Harry Gregson-Williams - Composer (Music Score), Joan Hills - Makeup, Gemma Jackson - Production Designer, John Fenner - Cinematographer, Trevor Brooker - Cinematographer, Tim Bevan - Producer, Eric Fellner - Producer, Rachel Talalay - Producer, David A. Stephenson - Sound/Sound Designer, Jim Dowdall - Stunts Coordinator, Peter Chiang - Special Effects Supervisor, John Camps - Screenwriter, Gavin Scott - Screenwriter, Mary Norton - Book Author
The movie starts with young Pete Lender setting up traps around his house. His parents ask him to explain why, and he says he's trying to capture whatever is stealing the small commodities lying around the house. Meanwhile, his parents go to meet Ocious P. Potter (Goodman), a corpulent lawyer who intends on destroying the Lenders' home in order to build an apartment complex. The only way to save the house is to find the long-lost will of Pete's maternal great-aunt (his mother's aunt), who is rumored to have left the house to them before her death. Meanwhile, Arrietty Clock, the elder child of a family of miniaturized humans known as "Borrowers", meets Pete during her mischievous ventures into the Lenders' home, where she learns that their precious home will be destroyed if nothing is done. Unfortunately, her family refuses to trust Pete, a member of the human "beans" (As they call them), so Arrietty must get the two families to work together to find the will before Mr. Potter reduces the house to ruin.
Reception
The Guardian has described the film as "A spirited screen version of the Mary Norton stories about the tiny folk who live under the floorboards, and off human scraps. Jim Broadbent and Celia Imrie are a joy as the parents of little Arrietty..." [1]Roger Ebert in his review described the film, in the wake of numerous television adaptations, as a "big-screen, big-budget version with special effects so amusing it's like Toy Story has come to life...the charm comes in the way The Borrowers makes its world look like a timeless story book. If the action and the physical humor are designed to appeal to kids, the look of the film will impress adults who know what to look for."[2]
