Starring: Celia Imrie, Shelley Conn, Shannon Tarbet, Rupert Penry-Jones, Bill Patterson
Distributor: Rialto Films
Runtime: 97 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2020
| 
| 
If you have ever dreamt of cleaning up a shambles store-space, setting up bakery with specialised cakes, of opening a tea room, Love Sarah is definitely your film. And if you have never had these dreams, Love Sarah is also a film for you. It has sadness, happiness, cuteness, sentiment, and enthusiasm. By the way, Love Sarah is the name of the tearoom situated in a London suburban street.
At the end of the film, the name of the producing company appears, Femme Films. And that is very true – this is very much a women’s film, the director, the three central characters, men in supporting roles, a paternity question. And all in London, very British, attractive for those who live in London, and an engaging set of memories for those who ever lived there or visited.
The sadness is fairly instant. A woman in her 40s has died. She and her friends had done cooking training in Paris some decades before and were now in a position to set up their own bakery. The three women who loved her are her mother, Mimi (Celia Imrie), her daughter Clarissa (Shannon Tarbert) and her best friend, Isabella (Shelley Conn). They are faced with a challenge and each responds in her own way. Isabella is the driving force but feels she is not expert chef enough for the project. Mimi has been alienated from her daughter and the younger women try to persuade her to become involved. Clarissa, a ballet student, experiences a breakup and moves back with her grandmother.
The performances of the three women are engaging, especially Celia Imrie, a past high-wire artist (who does have a moment to illustrate that even, elderly, she could still pose on the trapeze). Celia Imrie reminds us that she was in the Best Marigold hotels films – and this audience is definitely a target for Love Sarah.
And the supporting men? Rupert Penry-Jones is Matthew, a top chef, who trained with the two women, was in a relationship with Clarissa’s mother, feels the need for something new in his cooking life, wants to be associated with the women again. While he might have had his caddish moments in the past, he is more genial now (as has been Rupert Penry-Jones’ past screen presence, playing a number of cads).
Across the street from the tea and cakes lives an eccentric elderly gentleman, Felix, Bill Patterson. He calls by, watches the shop out his window, attracts the attention of Mimi who discovers he is an inventor, even eager to set up a security system in Love Sarah.
Much of what we might expect from such a scenario takes place: few customers initially, the baking of beautiful cakes (who are very well prepared for their frequent close-ups), visitors, lucky opportunities…
In fact, commendably, the film’s and Mimi’s creative brainwave faces the fact that London is a multi-multi-cultural place in that many who have come to the UK have a yearning for the pastries of the past, their past. And, commercially, this provides a bonanza.
This is definitely a feel-good film and so it ends for each of the characters feeling good – as we do as we leave the cinema.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
12 Random Films…
