moonspinner55 Review of Dear Brigitte

Dear Brigitte (1965)

Fussy, annoying family comedy; ersatz Disney without the car chase...

[3/10 · 8 April 2008]

John Haase's novel "Erasmus With Freckles" gets a woebegone Hollywood makeover and, while it may look promising at the outset, it turns out to be one of the weakest films James Stewart ever starred in. Young Billy Mumy, a mathematical genius, spends all of his spare time writing juvenile love letters to French film actress Brigitte Bardot (though it isn't mentioned just how many of her pictures he has actually been allowed to see). Eventually, dad Stewart gets Mumy an audience with the siren (whose brief appearance is the only bright spot here). Movies about unconventional family broods have to include more than just hectic, noisy silliness to keep our attention; this adaptation doesn't even try for a sense of eccentricity in the content of character, nor does it expand on the central child's personality. It's meant to be heart-warming, non-threatening fun, yet it borders dangerously on bland, with nary a single funny scene. *1/2 from ****