Art imitates the title in this mouthful of a movie

WITH the word “literary” in the title, you probably expect this film to be wordy. You’d be wrong. You see, it’s not just wordy. It’s very, very wordy. There is someone speaking in every single scene – most of the time, they’re speaking fast – so much so that there is not much room to emote. There are more speeches than acting. The Guernsey Literary and Potato

Peel Pie Society is already a mouthful of a title, but that’s not anyone’s fault but Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. They are the authors of the book of the same title, in which two characters write letters to each other.

In the film, the characters get to meet. And so many more people are thrown into the mix that it feels like the film was meant to be a series but lacked the time, so everyone’s backstories are jammed into two hours of screen time.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m just poking fun at this film. Yes, I found it to be much too long with too many words – kind of like I’m doing right now. But it’s a love story at the end of the day and people love love stories. It’s the 1940s and Juliet (played by the ditzy Lily James) is an author who writes under the pen name, Izzy Bickerstaff. Her book,

Izzy Bickerstaff Goes To War, seems to be a Tin Tin-esque adventure that has the book stores abuzz. Juliet has hectic World War II PTSD, but that is romanticised as just a flashback that keeps her from buying a beautiful apartment and keeps her humble.

All of this is a set-up for when she finally goes to the poor island of Guernsey to visit a book club that curiously calls itself The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (it’s explained why at the start of the film, so I’ll spare you the spoiler).

Juliet’s publisher, Sidney Stark (Matthew Goode) is an endearing character. He’s spicy, frank and has no problem spilling all the tea. Sidney tells Juliet she’s been commissioned by a newspaper to write about the benefits of literature.

So Juliet decides revealing the secrets of the tight-knit book club is the way to go. But you know how pretty privilege goes. Despite being engaged to an American dude, Juliet goes against everyone’s wishes, stays in Guernsey for longer than her beau would have her stay, writes what she wants and still gets the guy she betrayed. All while talking and talking and talking the entire time.

If you’re into a long love story, where certain people can do no wrong, even when they are doing wrong, you’ll love The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.