I Capture The Castle (2003)

I Capture the Castle starts out as a pleasant, engaging, and mildly amusing coming-of-age tale about a young woman growing up with a quirky family in an unusual setting. As the relationships between the characters become increasingly complicated, the film's mood becomes less effervescent and the story line becomes more melodramatic. The filmmaking seems a bit dispassionate despite the attempts to convey a sense of romantic delirium with an overdone score and flowery voice-over narration by the lead character, Cassandra Mortmain (Romola Garai). Fortunately, Garai gives an appealing performance and makes Cassandra seem sufficiently likeable to emotionally involve the audience in her struggle to cope with her intense feelings. Unfortunately, the actors in the various romantic couplings (potential or otherwise) don't have a lot of chemistry with each other, which undermines this aspect of the film. Also, the actors sometimes sound like they're reading a speech instead of speaking in a normal conversational tone; Marc Blucas in particular sounds like he needs to relax and worry less about projecting his voice. Still, this film is often appealing and charming even though it doesn't seem fully realized. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide