“I protest against the profiting of the grief of others, I’ve stood against fraud … I don’t see any of that here. I see only joy.”

Wow, there are some miserable people on the IMDb over this one. Sorry, I’ve got a little behind in my reviews so the next few are gonna be based on notes made on movies not as fresh in my mind as I’d like. I personally always had this pegged as something of a second-rate Little Princess, Secret Garden, Loch Ness, all of which came out around the same time, all of which were wonderful. But it’s easily up there. And for the curmudgeons who are so against the True Story moniker, I’d really suggest watching it again. There are clearly deliberate looks between the two girls that more than hint at the truth that finally emerged, looks that say, “it’s getting out of hand, we should tell.” I think someone involved here was at least a little interested in suggesting what actually happened, even while, duh, this is a movie about something completely different.

The girls are excellent, especially Elizabeth Earl, who plays Frances. Every smile from that girl makes a mess of me, she’s so perfect for this movie, you just can’t not believe that she believes. Zbigniew Priesner’s score should’ve been nominated for an Oscar, I particularly love the high stringy stings – and how can you argue with a movie that contains a scene where Bill Nighy introduces Peter Mullan as practically an extra and where Peter O’Toole, Harvey Keitel and yes even Mel Gibson seem like an afterthought?

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