How About You...

Ellie is a woman in her twenties who has not found a direction for her life. She takes a job at a residential home run by her older sister. Over the Christmas holiday everyone leaves and four people stay behind: three old women and a retired judge. All four are difficult; there is talk of putting them out because nobody can stand them. Ellie is left alone with them for a few days. The source is a short story by Maeve Binchy; in the book as in the film the remaining four are called the hard core. The Irish production directed by Anthony Byrne stands up on its cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Imelda Staunton, Brenda Fricker and Joss Ackland. All four take their characters out of being lovable old people and make them cantankerous, selfish and damaged. Hayley Atwell plays Ellie. The mould is a Christmas film but it does not deliver the usual warming story; why the old people are the way they are is what the film is really about.