Princess Caraboo

[dreamshark]

Richard and Thorin went off to Northfield for some sort of gaming event yesterday, leaving me to spend a delightfully solitary Saturday recovering from my first week at Digi. I puttered around the house and the computer for awhile, then indulged in takeout Chinese food and a rented movie. All the newer movies I wanted to see were gone for the weekend, so I grabbed "Princess Caraboo." I've seen it before, and remembered that I really liked it, but not much more than that. What a delightful movie! I recommend it to everybody who likes thoughtful, charming little English movies along the lines of "The Englishman Who Went up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain." The movie claims to be based on a true story, but it's such a very strange (and handily cinematic) tale that I figured it was one of those high concept movies that was loosely inspired by a historical occurrence, like "The Return of Martin Guerre." But after I watched the movie I did a little Internet research and was amazed to discover that almost everything was real. There was one major change that was intended to make the ending more satisfying to movie audiences, which rippled back through the rest of the story. In order to make the ending make sense, this detail and that had to be changed, and oddly out-of-place lines of dialogue inserted to explain the changes. I kinda wish they had left the ending exactly as ambiguous as it was in reality. Still, a remarkably good job, all round. If you like that kinda thing, rent the movie then check out the real story. (Warning - if you do it in the other order it might spoil the movie for you. Or not. After all, I enjoyed the movie just as much the second time round.)
The Real Story