I capture the castle

Have you seen this? This gem? This brilliant piece of teenage advocacy? You might be wondering--who is the boyishly handsome man on the right? It's ELLIOT FROM E.T.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, that is reason enough to watch this movie, no??

I'm not sure anymore. But I think I watched this seven years ago on my birthday. Flanked by my two best friends. And we lapped it up. Precocious Cassandra lives with her family in a dilapidated castle. Her father is a famous writer past his prime. Cassandra, her beautiful older sister, younger brother and stepmom humor the father--keeping his fragile ego intact.

Cassandra is seventeen. Her journal is her best friend. The similarities between her and me were startling. I was also seventeen. I also wrote obsessively in my journal. She lives in 1930's England in a dilapidated castle. I also lived.

Romola Garai plays doe eyed Cassandra so well. She's good. So good. She plays her with such a succinct vulnerability. Cassandra is content always to play second fiddle to her sister's beauty. I think what "I Capture the Castle" does so well is portray sisterhood in a way that is real, rounded. Cassandra and sister Rose fight. Their temperaments are so different. Rose is flighty and only concerned with her beauty and Cassandra is cerebral, an observer. But they are best friends. There is no jealousy. Just two girls who root for each other in their hearts.

And there is love. Cassandra and Rose meet two handsome American brothers. The brothers are their tickets out of the dilapidated castle, out of not-so-genteel poverty. Cassandra loves one of the brothers. But she is only the plain little sister, good for fun, not for marriage. Cassandra feels so intensely. She lives in her head. In her journal.

Bill Nighy is as good as ever as Cassandra's father. But the movie belongs to Romola. Romola, who can express anything with her eyes. Romola, whose voice breaks at exactly the right time when she's crying. Romola, who is neither ugly nor beautiful--just perfect.

Oh and the cinematography? Endless rolling hills and beautiful vistas if that's your thing. But if your thing is an insightful female protagonist who refuses mediocrity and wants more than anything TO LOVE and to BE LOVED--oh you will love it.