Heart-warming drama about unfulfilled dreams, innocence and unrequited love. Janet (Maggie Smith) and Ursula (Judi Dench) are sisters who discover a castaway on the beach below their house.

They nurse him back to health with the help of the local doctor (David Warner) and discover he has a talent as a musician. However, the castaway has an unsettling effect on the sisters, especially Ursula, whose life changes forever.

"Why don't they make films like this anymore?" It's a delicately-paced story of two aging sisters--Ursula (Dame Judi Dench) and Janet (Maggie Smith--who live together on a Cornwall beach in 1936. They discover a foreign stranger washed ashore (Daniel Bruhl), and while nursing him back to health make an astonishing discovery: the young man, a Pole, is a phenomenally gifted violinist.

And Ursula finds her feelings for the mango far deeper than merely maternal. Writer and director Charles Dance has crafted an admirable debut. Ladies in Lavender is a tenderly done and bittersweet story of innocence and regret. Though the dialogue sometimes seems too earnest, and he has an over-reliance on slow-motion cinematography, he still allows his two talented leads enough time and space to shine.

It?s only unfortunate that more effort did not go into the DVD release of the film: the extras only consist of soundbites from the cast and crew, which add little insight. --Ted Kord