Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

FairyTale – A True Story (1997)

Director: Charles Sturridge

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

One of two 1997 films inspired by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths' photographs of the fairies resident at the bottom of their Cottingley garden. While Nick Willing's Photographing Fairies used the hullabaloo surrounding the pics to spin a distinctly ambivalent, adult story about bereavement, imagined realities and the post-WWI national psyche, Sturridge's film takes up the same issues in the children's film format, proclaims a whole hearted, affirmative response to the Fairy Question, and induces a more ambiguous reaction. Despite the high production values, however, the glitzy cast and several tried-and-tested storytellers, I never truly believed that the film-makers believed. Children, on the other hand, may not be so cynical. It's a respectable tale, but there's too much baggage for the fancy fully to take flight.

Author: NB 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Charles Sturridge

Producer: Wendy Finerman, Bruce Davey

Cast: Florence Hoath, Elizabeth Earl, Paul McGann, Phoebe Nicholls, Bob Peck, Harvey Keitel, Peter O'Toole, Anton Lesser, Mel Gibson full cast

Genre(s): Children's

Duration: 98 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.