It’s time for one of those films that doesn’t sound very interesting at first glance but maybe it could surpass that? Unfortunately that was not in the cards this time. The character cast is on the weaker side and there just isn’t a lot going on here. The film moves at a fairly slow pace and so the characters would have been its only chance at success.

The movie starts off with Lotty suggesting to one of her fellow club members (Rose) that they should rent a castle. It’s a rather impulsive thought but she saw an ad for this in the newspaper. Lotty has not been very consistent with her life at the moment as it’s rather boring and her husband is always running around to parties and trying to meet all of the bigwigs. Rose isn’t having a great time either as her husband is always writing nsfw books and doesn’t put her as his #1 priority. After some convincing, Rose agrees but a castle will be too expensive. SO they enlist an older lady named Mrs. Fisher and the rich Lady Dester to accompany them. The 4 of them will enjoy a month away from men and the outside world in general. Will they have fun or will they begin to miss their old lives?

It’s an interesting idea although I would argue that if you need a month away from your husband than the marriage was already very weak. You don’t need time away when you are having a good time after all. The husbands do not look good at all so this does track. That is why Lotty seems very annoying to me. If I were the other characters I’d be super upset because she suddenly decides to invite her husband over after just a few days.

Yes, the characters had previously agreed that they could each invite someone over but the fact that the one who suggested the idea was the first to cave is terrible. Lotty isn’t really up for discussing the matter either and just launches forward. The film shows that she is rather crazy the whole time but it turns this from being a quirk into a totally negative trait. You’re rooting against Lotty by this point. It’s just incredibly insensitive and I was not able to get past this even to the end of the film.

Sure enough, her husband shows up and immediately makes it clear that he is here to make connections. He gives some back handed complements like he’s surprised at how Lotty has such influential friends. The guy ends up not being too much of a nuisance but it still changes the vibe. You can’t be quite as free and one with nature if there’s another guy around. It’s just a matter of decorum.

Lotty then also pressures Rose to do the same thing and that so her husband shows up as well. This guy is basically showing up to see Dester and of course has been living a double life. This is a rather huge issue but the film basically shoves it to the side and he never has to pay for these issues. It would be one thing if the husband was keeping a second identity to not be connected to the book but the film makes it clear that he is really doing this to get with the ladies. The guy is not loyal and shouldn’t have been invited to this event.

Rose wasn’t the best character either but at least she wasn’t out there betraying her husband. Her main failing is that she is too easy to pressure. She is basically forced into the castle plan and from there on she rarely has enough strength to make her own decisions. She always ends up listening to Lotty and the others. Even by the end of the film I don’t think she ever really came into her own.

Lester has a tough time of it as she came to the castle for a peaceful adventure and yet everyone is always bothering her. She really doesn’t get a whole lot of peace and quiet to herself at all. I also thought she had the best plan of action for the castle which was just to relax by herself. That was the whole point of the trip and it wasn’t supposed to be about having lots of mandatory activities and bonding. This is a vacation, not work. The others worry about every little thing while Lester sees the bigger picture. She was easily the best character here.

Then we have the older lady Mrs. Fisher. She was a fun character. At first she tried to really dominate the rest but once that didn’t work, she calmed down quickly. She is big on traditions and so it takes a while to really learn how to relax. Still, Fisher pulls it off and gets along with the other characters. She doesn’t have as much of a trial to get over so her role felt a bit smaller even if I feel like the screentime was probably roughly on point with the other characters.

Ultimately the film’s biggest problem is just that it’s rather boring. Nothing is really happening and so that’s why you have to be on board with the characters. Since the characters are on the weaker side then there wasn’t much that could really be done to save the adventure. From that point on, the film was doomed.

I can respect the intention of the film which is that this grand castle was able to save both marriages and show the other characters how to be happy but the way it played out wasn’t very believable. It just felt like the characters needed more time to develop these subplots and the film was already pretty long. It would have been better for the film to have just been about the 4 ladies and how they are completely different but still manage to come together in the end. The castle could have been about how they all forgot their outside selves and just had fun.

If you really wanted to include the husbands on this trip, then they should have been introduced as better characters. You could have easily still had the wives feeling dissatisfied with their lives without making the husbands quite as bad. For example maybe both of them were spending so much time at work that they felt neglected. Instead by introducing them as antagonists, it meant that the redemption arc was not going to be very satisfactory or paced well in comparison. I feel like the film tried to have some funny moments with both of them so they wouldn’t feel quite as much like villains but it did not work at all.

Overall, This is the kind of film that doesn’t even really work as background noise. It’s not making a significant amount of problems during the run but isn’t really keeping your attention either. I can’t say that I would enjoy spending a month at the castle very much. I would definitely find ways to make the days pass by quickly but give me my own bed any time. Now spending that time with 3 people that I really don’t know very well? Yeah that would be even rougher. This does not feel like a very calming experience at all. The whole film is hard to relate to and isn’t executed well. There are just so many better ways you could have handled the story to make the film more interesting because I could definitely handle a film about the characters bonding. They really needed to make Lotty a more likable character though, she was chaotic in all the worst ways. Well, if you’ve ever really wanted to be in a castle then maybe you should check it out.

Overall 4/10