"Mr. Malcolm s List" is sure to be comfort food for fans of light and breezy period rom-coms. It also provides a happy escape for moviegoers who might be seeking refuge from the wave of tent-pole summer blockbusters that are currently in full force. And while a Jane Austen-ish feature film won t be everyone s cup of tea (normally myself included), I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed this quaint and witty regency-era romance.
It is a great sadness that a witty and graceful prose stylist like Ludwig Bemelmans should today be remembered primarily for his children s books about Madeline. His works should be in every bookstore, somewhere near Waugh and Thurber, and studied by anyone who wants to learn how to put a sentence together without any nails.
Still, to have a degree of immortality is a blessing, and today there are little girls (and some boys) all over the world who can recite for you the opening lines of Bemelmans first book about Madeline: In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.