The Spitfire Grill

Percy Talbot is a girl who's trying to escape her past by moving to a town that offers her a future. She is a young girl who has just finished serving time in prison and manages to find a job helping a crotchety old lady (Hannah Ferguson, played by Ellen Burstyn) run a well-loved diner (called 'The Spitfire Grill') in a sleepy community. While there, her fresh perspective manages to not only shake things up in a town that loves not having surprises, but it also endears her to most of the community's townsfolk.

As the storyline develops, we learn more about Percy and her past. We also learn about Hannah and a secret that she's been carrying around for years. It is an engaging story that has very fleshed out characters. Alison Elliott turns in a superb performance in the lead role of Percy. This is a feel-good film that runs deeper than most. It is no wonder that this 1996 production was turned into off-Broadway musical a mere five years later.

One of the weaknesses of this film is that the story runs a bit slow at times, but we at FilmQuest wonder if that was to let the audience absorb the full impact of the story. And amidst the four major characters in the film, there are a number of two-dimensional people which detract some from the richness of the story. Despite these nuisances, we would still recommend this film for viewing on a cold winter's night, when you're curled up in front of a fire with your loved ones. It was a close call, but in the end we had to give this film just 6 QuestMarks out of a possible 10, despite wanting to give it a higher rating. This is mainly due to the fact that although we loved the film, there were a number of shortcomings that detracted from the overall enjoyment of it.