Bella Brown is an odd duck. Abandoned as a baby and raised without parents, or a proper home, she relies on order and predictability to manage her days and nights. She works in a library and dreams of being a children’s author – if only she could think of a story.
The only aspect of her life that isn’t obsessively orderly is her back garden, due to a deep and abiding fear of…plants. I think. But anyway, the yard is neglected enough that her landlord threatens her with homelessness if she doesn’t straighten it up in a month’s time. During that month, Bella (Jessica Brown Findlay) will meet three men: a) the rude and grumpy old widow next door, Alfie (Tom Wilkinson) b) Alfie’s hard-working, 
unappreciated cook, also a widower, named Vernon (Andrew Scott), and c) Billy (Jeremy Irvine), a head-in-the-clouds inventor who haunts the library looking for inspiration.
This Beautiful Fantastic is sweet, and whether you find that a complimentary thing in a movie is up to you. It styles itself as a modern-day fairy tale, though I think that’s a bit of a reach. The story is a bit thin for that, though the characters are all fitting enough. But it IS a very pleasant way to tend to a blossoming if unlikely friendship between a reclusive young woman, and her nemesis – the cranky old guy next door. Set variously in a beautiful garden and a library. So very genteel.
The garden metaphor is painfully obvious of course. Get it? GET IT? Of course we do. Now back off with the lazy writing that still still somehow congratulates itself. But with some fine actors, it manages to be quite charming and a little offbeat. If your gag reflex for the saccharine is running sensitive these days, stay away. But if you want something kind of cute to do your taxes to, you could do worse.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
This is actually a unique idea and the kind of story that really catches my imagination.
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Sweet’s good. Sometimes. I wonder about this girl’s upbringing, though. It seems rather strange, but then again, it does hit the hero’s journey with her starting out alone… I’m overthinking this.
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There were lots of stories implied but not delved into. There’s definitely more to her story!
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Sweets a good description. A little obvious where it was going to but I actually enjoyed this one and I don’t usually go for the sweet stuff 🙂
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I really like the title at least. This sounds like something I’d maybe watch on Netflix.
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Not even an ironing movie, I like a bit of pzazz!
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Completely new to me. I would definitely remember that title.
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A friend of mine calls stories like this “so sweet they give you cavities”. Well, this one may not entirely qualify–with the cast and at least an attempt at subtlety makes it more than empty calories.
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It might be a good one to watch when I want something that I don’t have to concentrate on too much.
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I can be for sweets and this sounds like the kind of movie that is needed when one needs to cheer up and turn off the world
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Tom Wilkinson is one of my favorite actors and I don’t think I’ve seen Jennifer Brown Findlay in anything except for an episode of “Black Mirror,” but she was great. I can appreciate a sappy movie once in a while, I think I might give this a try. 🙂
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