Solomon & Gaenor (1999)

Rising Welsh star Ioan Gruffud (Titanic, Horatio Hornblower) stars as Solomon to Nia Robert's Gaenor in director Paul Morrison's Oscar®-nominated tale of star-crossed lovers living in the wrong place (Wales) at the wrong time (1911). Solomon is a Jewish packman who travels door to door selling fabric from his family's shop to the locals. It is on one such occasion that he meets Gaenor, the soft-spoken daughter of a miner. The attraction is mutual, but he conceals his true identity from her. A few visits (and one red dress) later, and Gaenor has fallen in love with the kindly "Sam" and has even introduced him to her family. But the more he resists her attempts to meet his family, the more she becomes convinced that hers is right and that his intentions are not honorable. Solomon is just as much in love, but he knows that his family would never accept Gaenor (any more than hers would accept him) if they knew the whole truth.

In the end, it isn't his lies that put their lives in jeopardy, but the fear and intolerance the lies were meant to keep at bay. The message may be heavy handed, but Gruffud and Roberts assay their roles with conviction and skill--a portion of his dialogue is in Yiddish and hers in Welsh. While they are together, Solomon and Gaenor speak the same language. English? Yes, but more importantly, the language that knows no borders--love. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Amazon.com

Good

This was a sad yet beautiful movie. Yes, there were sex scenes but it was tastefully done. The end has a surprise twist....that's all I will say on that because I don't want to spoil the movie. Ioan Gruffudd did a an excellent job portraying Solomon and Nia Roberts did an okay job an Gaenor. Of course there was hypocrisy, judgmental behavior and the like in this movie but that's the way it was then and any movie set in that time period is going to have those elements. The storyline was a bit predictable but that is not the end of the world. December 29, 2007

Romeo and Juliet in Wales

Just as Romeo and Juliet had to live out their tragic love in the midst of warring families,so too do Solomon and Gaenor in 1911 Wales.This is a true star-crossed-lovers film that finds it's main characters fighting against the most impossible odds.Gaenor is from a Protestant Welsh family,whose lives are being tossed about by the coal mine strikes.Solomon is a son of transplated Russian Jews who run a goods shop on the other side of the mountain.Solomon is a pacman,a door-to-door cloth seller, who, one day selling his wears, comes upon the lovely Gaenor(Nia Roberts).Solomon (Ionn Gruffudd) is weak-kneed at the sight of her,and Gaenor is as well captivated by him.Because Solomon is aware of prevailing anti-Jewish sentiment among some of the Welsh natives,he fabricates a new name,nationality,and family history in order to ,as he thinks,make the wooing of Gaenor easier.Well...that just doesn't happen!!!Watch the film and you'll see!
Ionn Gruffudd never ceases to amaze with the depth of his acting.The suffering that Solomon undergoes could not have been acted better.Nia Roberts is thoroughly convincing as the very shy yet incredibly passionate Gaenor.The two stars are lovely to watch and are quite affecting.
Shot on location in Wales,this Oscar-nominated film is a real eyefull that grips the whole range of emotions. February 16, 2007

Should be rated X

I was pretty shocked at the explicit sex scenes in this movie. It is NOT the Romeo and Juliet story they portray on the back cover. We never saw those two in their birthday suits! Romeo had much more integrity than the guy in this movie. This guy is a very self centered young man and she is a fool. They end up in the hay pretty fast and continue to go at it with out any getting to know each other. Not that rollicking in the hay before marriage is good anytime.
I was pretty diappointed. May 4, 2006

Pretty good British romantic drama, a bit on the tragic side.

If you like British historical dramas and melodramas, you will definitely like this one. July 19, 2005

You call THIS a love story???

The boy interest in this movie, Solomon, is so selfish and so immature, that near the end of the movie, when Gaenor's brother is literally beating Solomon to death, you actually find yourself cheering for the brother to keep on beating and kicking Solomon into a dusty bloody pulp.
I know this much: Here's what a love story is NOT: Immature teenagers illicitly rolling around in the hay together and then, when the moral payment for their actions comes due, behaving as self-centered teenagers must.
Unfortunately, that's all that comprises this attrocious, gallingly pretensious movie. January 4, 2004

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