"Turtle Diary" is so low-key as to be inaudible to some audiences accustomed to being defeaned by explosions and "entertained" by cartoonish characters blowing each other away. I thought the quirky minimalist dialog hilarious, but my parents (whose attention span is similar to that of the MTV generation) thought it stupid.

Everything of importance about the characters' frustrations and inhibitions is stated indirectly or shown. Like Pinter's screenplay of The French Lieutenant's Woman or The Heat of the Day,,his adaptation of Russell Hoban's novel is cinematic. It exemplifies the "Show, don't tell" exhortation, though viewers such as my parents don't see what is shown and require explanation.

Pinter can be very portentuous, and his characters don't usually break through to happiness and fulfillment. And the characters encountered here seem especially unlikely to do so.

Two shy, inhibited people, once-successful but now-blocked writer Neaera Duncan (Glenda Jackson) and nervous bookstore clerk William Snow ( Ben Kingsley) are mesmerized and saddened by the spectacle of sea turtles in a cramped tank at the London Zoo. Obviously, they feel similarly cramped and in need of mid-life transformation.

Snow lives in a small boarding house with some eccentric others, while Duncan lives alone with a pet water beetle, across the hall from a man (Richard Johnson) who dotes on snails. (Sea turtles are a major increase in scale for them, one sees.) Although it initially seems that they have given up seeking happiness in general, and romantic liaisons in particular, they defy expectations (as the plot largely does, too).

Both fantasize--initially separately, eventually together-- about setting them free. Abetted by a sympathetic zookeeper (Michael Gambon), they eventually make off with two of the turtles. This success is not the end, however, and devoid of any chase scenes (as would be obligatory in Hollywood or Hong Kong movies about stealing large creatures from a public zoo). And insofar as the film is "life affirming" the life it affirms is not standard-issue. For one thing, romance does not bloom between the two leads, though romance does bloom.

This movie contains one of Glenda Jackson's most subtle performances ("The Romantic Englishwoman" contains another). Ben Kingsley and Michael Gambon are certainly also capable of overacting, but deliver nuanced performances here. The musical score by Geoffrey Burgon is also exemplary in augmenting without overwhelming what is shown.

One of the oddest aspects of this small-scale triumph is that it was directed by John Irvin (director of such macho fare as "The Dogs of War" and "Hamburger Hill"), Those who respond to the film's charms would probably like Stephen Frears's film "Stevie," "84 Charing Cross Road," Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Red," and Patricia Routledge's turns as housewife turned private investigator Hetty Wainthrope.


Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12