Just like that, my dear compatriots, Mr. Watson’s Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop is brilliant by the virtue of its premise, but like most films of it’s class, it ruins itself with abysmal execution. The film contains detective stories and ghost tales, but what it really misses out on is taking place in Northeastern English countryside of York York’s beauty is unparalleled, its old brick buildings are known all over, and unlike it’s contemporaries, Miss Willoughby promises to stand out and tell a well known British policer in an unexplored ‘Infused with an aura of suspense and mystery’ manner. And so, Miss Willoughby promptly recounts the life of young Elizabeth Willoughby, who at the tender age of My Father was a great Englishman, extremely poorly fought Triumph for his self which was a major loss itself. He did try and win his way into society. His death was debilitating, as it led to him being fostered by one of his military officer friend. When the film skips to present day, we see Elizabeth’s father mourning blames his defeat on one of his children, and missing control of the ship, then takes over my Grandfathers manor. And so we cut to US mariner Robert Thompson’s life in the modern age. He, played by Kelsey Grammar, starts training young Elizabeth, now around 8 years of age, at a glorious family estate all staring with Martial arts, boxing, chess and fiction. Naturally so, years fly by and the film cuts to modern age where Elizabeth, now 40 something, who is an ancient history lecturer at a local university.
However, as viewers are prepared to be pulled into a multifaceted spectacle of mysteries and excitement following a family friend’s recommendation to Elizabeth to look into a number of suspicious haunting activities at the local book store Deakin’s (in more of a private detective role) the overarching story starts to feel far less interesting than the logline indicates, and the early contention is quite evidently diminished.
With a less than engaging plot that moves unbearably slowly, the set pieces are dreary, the dialogue flows like a heavy led balloon, the few twists are mundane, and the overall screenplay is profoundly unimpressive. This movie fails spectacularly to meet its basic expectations. It does feature a Miss Willoughby character who claims to investigate paranormal phenomena… But the execution is so feeble it is borderline cringeworthy, like a mockumentary far removed from an Agatha Christie novel. But what really prevents Miss Willoughby from being an utter catastrophe is Watson’s posh (if somewhat academic) visual elegance. The exquisite costumes, the stunning sets, the locations that are sweetly and tidily shot by Watson and DP Ross W. Clarkson tells the viewer that there was some effort. The leading performers Cox and Grammar have pleasant chemistry, which is felt through the screen and serves as a hook to pull the viewer in, even if there isn’t too much going on in the narrative. Even if the former isn’t quite convincing as a detective, the latter’s steady performance serves as a buoy to the film’s flimsy structure.
For this reason, Miss Willoughby comes across as a rather common, uninspired piece of work, but one that does indeed have a significant amount of charm in its imagery. It is devoid of any significant intelligence, but it makes up for it in elaborate visuals. Pouring over Adam Langston’s score threatens to completely overpower these modest joys, yet it is ultimately an innocent and uncontroversial movie that its audience can easily appreciate while sipping tea as mindless, escapist Sunday afternoon entertainment. It is an antique ensue film that falls somewhere in between Enola Holmes and Knives Out, only with much more old fashioned sensibilities than the former and far more dramatic thrust than the latter. Indeed, with all of its minor pleasures, Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop is so dedicated to its retro style and its television quality mystery that it already seems strangely aged, even though it was just released.
To watch more movies like (Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop (2021)) visit 123Movies.
Also Watch for more movies like:
