Roald Dahl's Esio Trot

MOVIE #1,966 • SCORE 4/10 • 09.16.24
SERIES: TRUE RANDOM (Vol. LXXI)

This British TV movie is based on one of the only Roald Dahl books I’ve never read, the last of his (1990) to be published in his lifetime. I’ll hazard a guess that it doesn’t stack up with his best work, though. The plot involves Dustin Hoffman tricking Judi Dench into thinking that her pet tortoise is growing at an incredible rate because he gives her a fake “African” spell (involving “tortoise” spelt backwards — see the title) to recite to her tiny companion and then buys dozens of tortoises of various sizes from the local pet shop (which has a HUGE selection of tortoises for a local pet shop if you ask me) and swaps them out at intervals with a fishing pole so that it appears as if he doubles in size in just one month’s time. He does this because he loves her? And because she wants a bigger tortoise?? The moral of the story appears to be that women aren’t too bright??? James Corden features prominently as the narrator/neighbor and the whole thing is shot on an exterior apartment building set that looks simply wacky. This is what we’re working with…


As far as the ‘type’ of movie I am looking for from TRUE RANDOM, this is an A+ (i.e., I never even knew it existed beforehand). But it’s a pretty bad film. Shout-out to the actor Richard Cordery who plays an uncouth apartment neighbor — he at least brings some life, whereas Dench and Hoffman seem to be sleep-walking.

---

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,965 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,967 ⫸

---

Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, or simply Esio Trot, is a British comedy drama television film directed by Dearbhla Walsh and written by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, based on the 1990 novel, Esio Trot, by Roald Dahl. In the film, a retired bachelor (Dustin Hoffman) falls in love with his neighbour, a widow (Judi Dench) who keeps a tortoise as a companion after the death of her husband. It was released on January 1, 2015.