Fairytale: A True Story 

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Director: Charles Sturridge
Cast: Elizabeth Earl, Florence Hoath, Peter O'Toole, Harvey Keitel

Two English schoolchildren inhabit a magical land, not just in the physical sense (the beauty of their English countryside), but in the ethereal sense as well: they believe that fairies inhabit their garden. When they take pictures of the fairies to help a grieving mother, the resulting negatives produce a firestorm of controversy across the United Kingdom.

Enter Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Peter O'Toole), who wants to believe—and Harry Houdini (Harvey Keitel), who wants to debunk—and the result is an emotionally charged film with enough magic to keep the kids agape and enough musing to keep the adults thinking. The two girls (Florence Hoath and Elizabeth Earl) are especially good, two expressive faces awash in barely-concealed tragedy.

This film has its flaws, of course—the "villian," a reporter from the "Argus" newspaper, is straight out of the Cruella de Vil School of Mono-Dimensional Bad Guys. And there just isn't enough contact with the fairies themselves to make the film's final sequence—a breathtakingly gorgeous scene with the Queen of the Fairies and young actress Hoath—worthy of its gossamer beauty.

Best leave the big questions alone, and bring your kids. With wonderful film work from Michael Coulter ("Sense and Sensibility"), this is one is worth the daydreaming.

—Ian Williams

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