Housekeeping

Typically warm tale from Local Hero director Bill Forsyth. Two young sisters in 1950s Northwest America end up with their Aunt Sylvie, whose views of the world are most certainly her own. After their mother commits suicide, the two girls are adopted by their unusual aunt. Slow-burning, with the impressive Christine Lahti holding together a disparate ensemble., Christine Lahti as the eccentric guardian of orphaned teens (Sara Walker, Andrea Burchill). Directed by Bill Forsyth. Aunt Lily: Anne Pitoniak. Aunt Nona: Barbara Reese. Sheriff: Bill Smillie. Helen: Margot Pinvidic. French: Wayne Robson., Humorous film which examines a town’s reactions to two sisters who choose an unconventional way of life when they are mothered by an aunt who has spent years tramping the roads, a life which has made her a little loopy., Housekeeping is the film in which Christine Lahti invites a guest into a living room half-submerged in water. This is hardly the oddest moment in this offbeat Bill Forsyth film (his first American production). When their mother commits suicide by driving into a lake, Idaho pre-teens Ruth Sara Walker and Lucille (Andrea Burchill) fall into the custody of their Aunt Sylvie (Lahti). This strange young woman has throughout her life made unconventionality a life form. The girls initially aren’t sure what to make of their loopy guardian, but in time begin to respond differently to her. When Lucille distances herself from Sylvie’s eccentricities and then moves in with a local family, Walker draws closer to the older woman. The two head out on a series of picaresque adventures together, that include stealing a rowboat and riding in boxcars, but Lucille catches wind of this and informs the authorities – who promptly threaten to revoke Sylvie’s custody of Ruth. By then, however, Ruth has already begun to closely identify with Sylvie. Director Forsyth adapted his script from a novel by Marilynne Robinson., Bill Forsyth’s award-winning first American feature stars Christine Lahti as a distinctly unconventional, wayward woman who brings up her adolescent orphaned nieces Sara Walker and Andrea Burchill in a small mountain town in Montana in the ’50s., Story about the eccentric guardian of orphaned teens., Moving comedy drama about two teenage girls who are forced to live with their aunt in the Pacific Northwest after the death of their parents. The woman turns out to be an eccentric, solitary figure whose odd ways cause problems for the youngsters and her neighbours. Bill Forsyth’s first American film is based on the novel by Marilynne Robinson.