The movie “The Bookshop” is the very definition of a low budget art movie. Its about a woman named Florence Green in a small town somewhere in the hills of England, where it is always dark and cloudy. This woman wants to open up a bookstore where there has never been a bookstore, and most of the population does not even read. There are numerous messages here, but the most important one I gleaned from this film is that no matter where you are in the world there are evil people who derive pleasure from hurting someone else or trying to destroy their dreams. This is more difficult to watch in the case of this story about an extremely likable main character played by Emily Mortimer, who just wants to sell books and be happy. She befriends an older wealthy man in the town who loves to read played by Bill Nighy who tries to help her when her business runs into problems because of the people trying to ruin her book shop.

The issue I had with this movie was that it was too slow and boring in too many places. I found the external shots of the outdoor scenes rather depressing because it always seemed like it was dark and about to rain. I did not really understand the point of the ending and in the end, this movie was perhaps trying to be too artsy for me to recommend. This might be a movie for some people, especially those who love books, but not for me.