''Tortoise in Love'' is a 2012 British

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film. The story follows a

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Ancient Greek, Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of Microorganism, microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, f ...

turned

stately home An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

gardener A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby. Description A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner suppleme ...

who enlists the help of his village in an attempt to woo a Polish

au pair An au pair (; plural: au pairs) is a helper from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a monet ...

he has fallen in love with. First shown at the

2011 Cannes Film Festival The 64th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition. South Ko ...

, the film received its world premiere at

Odeon West End The Odeon Luxe West End is a two-screen cinema on the south side of Leicester Square, London. It has historically been used for smaller film premieres and hosting the annual BFI London Film Festival. The site is on an adjacent side of the squar ...

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...

, the first film to premiere at Leicester Square since its official re-opening. The film made headlines as a result of having its funding entirely

crowd sourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

from the village of

Kingston Bagpuize Kingston Bagpuize () is a village in the civil parish of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, about west of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire, England, until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the ...

and the neighbouring village of

Southmoor Southmoor is a village in the civil parish of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, about west of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Historically part of Berkshire, the 1974 boundary changes transferred local government to Oxfordshire. Southmoor village is j ...

Premise

Tom, a gardener at Kingston Bagpuize House, falls in love with Anya, a Polish au pair. He is agonisingly slow at making a move to win the heart of Anya, so the whole village comes together to help speed things up.

Production

After failing to secure backing for a previous project, Browning came upon the idea of seeking funding for ''Tortoise in Love'' from his local village. He presented his idea to produce a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

with a full

theatrical release An art release is the premiere of an artistic production and its presentation and marketing to the public. Film A film release is the authorization by the owner of a completed film to a public exhibition of the film. The exhibition may be in theat ...

during a village meeting in summer 2009. In the end, 800 residents from the village invested between £10 and £1,000 each, along with a £10,000 grant from Defra's

Rural Development Programme for England In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

towards the total budget of £250,000 in cash. In addition, the residents provided another £250,000 in services rendered. In return, they received shares in the film, with any profits going towards village improvement projects. Filmed and set in the village of Kingston Bagpuize, the filming took place over a six-week period with Kingston Bagpuize House and the local pub serving as

backlot A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction. Uses Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...

. While the main cast and key members of the production crew are professionals, the rest of the cast and crew were all provided for by the village residents and businesses. The local

Women's Institutes The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organisation for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being th ...

provided the catering, hair salon provided the hair and make up, and a local composer Geoff Cottrell the

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

, which won Best Original Score at the Idyllwild Film Festival in 2013. All of the non-local based personnel were housed in local homes.

Reception

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Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a 45% approval rating based on 11 reviews, with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 4.75/10.

References

External links

* * * {{rotten-tomatoes, id=tortoise_in_love_2012, title=Tortoise In Love
Kingston Bagpuize House
2011 romantic comedy films 2011 films British romantic comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films