Housekeeping

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Housekeeping

PG,

1987,

1h 57m,

Comedy/

Drama

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92%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

84%

500+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

92%

Tomatometer

13 Reviews

84%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

Lucille (Andrea Burchill) and Ruth (Sara Walker) come to live with their off-the-wall Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti) after their mother kills herself. From sleeping on park benches to methodically stacking tin cans into pyramids, Sylvie's quirks are at first hard to get used to. While Ruth eventually grows fond of the woman's irrepressible spirit, Lucille starts to resent her aunt's behavior -- especially when it brands them as outcasts among their small town's perplexed residents.

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Simran Hans

New Statesman

Mar 3, 2021

Housekeeping is a stranger, sparser, sadder film than it first appears. Forsyth, the Glaswegian film-maker known for Gregory's Girl (1981) and Local Hero (1983), channels the spirit of Robinson's distinctive prose.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Aug 7, 2015

The most impressive thing about this haunting fable is Forsyth's fluidity and grace as a storyteller.

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Jan 1, 2000

4/4

One of the strangest and best films of the year.

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Elizabeth Pincus

Gay Community News (Boston)

Sep 13, 2022

With extraordinary grace, the film wanders between sadness, delight and repose, evoking a full range of emotion about living life on the edge.

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

Jan 23, 2021

1.5/4

...the picture's downfall is a result of its often unreasonably (and breathtakingly) deliberate pace...

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Nathanael Hood

Unseen Films

May 11, 2020

7/10

Everything from the casual mutterings of hobos to the cluck-cluck-clucking of gossiping old biddies is perfectly just so.

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Hermione W

Nov 7, 2018

Very good plot with wacky characters. LOVED IT

Draco S

Sep 18, 2017

This is not a comedy. One of my favorite movies. Christine Lahti is amazing. It is very disturbing to point that I haven't watched it for years.

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Abraham G

Jun 19, 2017

Quirky (almost forgotten) 80's gem.

Anakin W

Apr 11, 2017

What words can describe this Bill Forsyth film? Wonderful. Incredible. Genius. Magnetic. Leaves. I wanted to cry.

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Bill Forsyth

Director

Christine Lahti

Sylvie

Sara Walker

Ruth

Andrea Burchill

Burchill

Anne Pitoniak

Aunt Lily

Barbara Reese

Aunt Nona

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Synopsis

Lucille (Andrea Burchill) and Ruth (Sara Walker) come to live with their off-the-wall Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti) after their mother kills herself. From sleeping on park benches to methodically stacking tin cans into pyramids, Sylvie's quirks are at first hard to get used to. While Ruth eventually grows fond of the woman's irrepressible spirit, Lucille starts to resent her aunt's behavior -- especially when it brands them as outcasts among their small town's perplexed residents.

Director: Bill Forsyth
Producer: Robert F. Colesberry
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 25, 1987, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 25, 2010
Runtime: 1h 57m
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

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