Hoopla Movie Review: Small Island

Small Island
(Hoopla)

Gritty and rosy at once, Small Island follows the lives of Hortense, an ambitious teacher from Jamaica, who dreams of an English house with a doorbell and a picket fence, and Queenie, a farm girl from Yorkshire, who dreams of travel and adventure, as they come of age and seek their happy-ever-after. The parallel and interconnected lives of the two women are told in scenes and flashbacks stitched together by a gentle narrator.

In the end, Queenie does the bravest thing, and so does Hortense, and their difficult choice — a sacrifice for both of them — leads to a moving happy-ever-after. Their hearts are strong and between them, they forge a way ahead…

This movie is about dreams and ambition and love and disappointment and…happiness. About stepping up to do brave things for those we love. The two women and the cast of friends, lovers, husbands share a moment in history when worlds converged, and from the bombed out rubble of Post War England dreams emerge.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the British series Call the Midwife, and Foyle’s War.] [Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official BBC Small Island web site ]

Recommended by Carrie K.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!