Silver “never was the brightest bulb in the chandelier” (to use her own expression), and she frets that little Alfie isn’t growing fast enough. Silver how he truly feels! But alas, she already loves someone else: her pet tortoise, Alfie, whom she keeps on her own balcony. Hoppy has dedicated any free time he can find to tending his plants, which conveniently gives the shy old man a chance to gaze down on his upbeat new neighbor and, when he can find the courage, to exchange a few words. Hoppy’s pride and joy has been the extravagant garden he keeps on the balcony of his otherwise modestly appointed bachelor flat. Silver (Dench), live one above the other.įor years, Mr. Dahl’s story takes place almost entirely in an apartment building, where its two lonelyhearts, silver-haired Mr. Co-written by “Love Actually’s” Richard Curtis (who shares credit with Paul Mayhew-Archer) and directed by smallscreen miracle worker Dearbhla Walsh (“Little Dorrit,” “Shameless”), the film has been crafted with all the care that might go into a cinema-bound feature, but suits the tube, given its inherently small confines. Judging by Hoffman and Dench’s involvement alone, this is no ordinary TV movie. Commissioned as a New Year’s telepic for British TV, this delightful family offering is already making its way to homevideo in several European markets, but could potentially support a more substantial treatment Stateside, if someone were to shell out for theatrical (exec producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought all other U.S.

Hoppy devises an elaborate scheme to woo the chelonian-loving widow downstairs, as played by Judi Dench. A rare romance from the typically dark imagination of children’s book author Roald Dahl, “Esio Trot” spells more than just “tortoise” backwards, but an evening of warm-fuzzy feelings all around as Dustin Hoffman’s Mr.

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