A Month In The Country

Set in the early 1920s, the film follows the experiences of Tom Birkin (Colin Firth), who has been employed via a bequest to carry out restoration work on a Medieval mural discovered in a church in the small rural community of Oxgodby, Yorkshire. The escape to the idyllic countryside is cathartic for Birkin, haunted by his experiences in World War I. Birkin soon fits into the slow-paced life of the remote village, and over the course of the summer uncovering the painting begins to lose his trauma-induced stammer and tics. In particular, he forms a close friendship with archaeologist James Moon (Kenneth Branagh), another veteran, who like Birkin has been emotionally scarred by the war. Moon is employed in the village under the same bequest, working to uncover a mysterious lost grave, but is more interested in discovering the remains of an earlier Saxon church building in the field next to the churchyard. Birkin becomes accepted into the Nonconformist family of Mr Ellerbeck the station master (Jim Carter), with whom he dines on Sundays; the hospitality of the chapel congregation is contrasted against the established church, who have consigned the penniless Birkin to sleep in the church belfrey. Mr Ellerbeck's children eventually persuade Birkin to preach a sermon at a nearby Methodist chapel. Birkin also forms an emotional, albeit unspoken, attachment to Alice Keach (Natasha Richardson), the young wife of the vicar. The vicar himself (Patrick Malahide) is portrayed unsympathetically as an obstruction to the ongoing work in the church, viewing the medieval painting as symptomatic of the superstition still prevalent in the remote community.