The 1992 movie “Enchanted April” is a charming, almost magical movie about four women who vacation together in a villa in Italy. Lottie Wilkins (played by Josie Lawrence) and Rose Arbuthnot (played by Miranda Richardson) are two English women living in England shortly after World War I. The two women are acquaintances, but not friends when the movie begins. Together they discover a newspaper ad for an Italian villa for rent by the month. They agree to rent the villa together to escape their unhappy lives temporarily. They also decide to sublet part of the villa to a Mrs. Fisher and a Lady Caroline Dester. Joan Plowright plays Mrs. Fisher perfectly. Mrs. Fisher is a stuffy, older woman with enough money that she used to having her own way. Lady Caroline (played by Polly Walker) is a beautiful young woman who is sought after by many of the men, both married and single, who meet her. Caroline has little interest in men because the man she loved was killed during the war.
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At first the four women awkwardly stay with each other and avoid each other except for at meals. Although in many ways Lottie seemed the most unhappy when the movie begins she is the first to recognize just how special the villa is. She invites her husband, played by Alfred Molina, to come stay. The others are shocked when she does so, but when he arrives within days and the Wilkins find their love has been rekindled they start to realize just how special the villa is. Following her example Rose invites her husband who arrives. He arrives, but not at the request of his wife, but because he his hoping to meet Lady Caroline, a woman he knows not under his real name, but under the nom de plume he uses to write his racy books. Much to his surprise, and my delight, he finds his love for Rose has grown, and his infatuation with Lady Caroline has ended.
