This rather uninvolving time-slip film was made by Julian Fellowes to use sets and cast members left over from his popular period TV drama, DOWNTON ABBEY. It's ostensibly an adaptation of a '50s children's book called The Children of Green Knowe, about a boy living during the Second World War who finds a way to travel back into the lives of those in Regency England. I remembering seeing a Children's BBC adaptation of the same book, made back in the 1980s, and it was a hundred times more successful than this production: spooky, creepy with a genuine sense of wonder.
FROM TIME TO TIME is subdued and subtle throughout. It has a decent cast and a not-bad script, but it lacks the oomph to make it memorable. There's nothing spectacular or scary here, and the atmosphere is non-existent. The biggest fault lies in the casting of Alex Etel as the teenage protagonist; he makes for one of the most unlikeable child leads I've ever seen. The supporting cast, including such luminaries as Timothy Spall, Maggie Smith, Dominic West, Carice van Houten and Hugh Bonneville, is excellent, but none of the actors are what you could call stretched and the story plays out with nary a twist in sight.
FROM TIME TO TIME is subdued and subtle throughout. It has a decent cast and a not-bad script, but it lacks the oomph to make it memorable. There's nothing spectacular or scary here, and the atmosphere is non-existent. The biggest fault lies in the casting of Alex Etel as the teenage protagonist; he makes for one of the most unlikeable child leads I've ever seen. The supporting cast, including such luminaries as Timothy Spall, Maggie Smith, Dominic West, Carice van Houten and Hugh Bonneville, is excellent, but none of the actors are what you could call stretched and the story plays out with nary a twist in sight.