Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Plot: Set in the early 1900's a story about a man who loses his newly married wife in a tragic accident discovers through photography that there is a world beyond this one where. A woman whose children took pictures of fairy like creatures, comes to him seeking proof that they are real. Although he is a skeptic at first, through the use of a hallucinogenic flower the children have, he discovers this other world, and longs for it to reunite him with his dead wife. Comments: Great acting by Toby Stephens in my opinion he deserves an academy award for best actor for his role in this. He leads you through this lovely story and makes you believe there is another world beyond where we exist. He had a great supporting cast Emily Woof, the beautiful Rachel Shelly, Ben Kingsley the little girls.. all played their roles superbly.I loved this story-line, I realize it was a remake of an older version of this story, but so much better done with modern screen technology. Its use of the flower to transform the states of consciousness, bring the fairies alive, making you believe in the hereafter. It had an endearing love story of a man obsessed with the wife he lost embedded in this mystery of the fairies. It has a great script adaptation and directing too. I don't know why I had to find this film years later in Netflix category I probably would not look at for a film like this, with such a bad description that I almost didn't watch it. Yet this film is so much better than most movies I see today. It has a good story line, mysterious and intriguing, great acting, what can I say but do watch it if you haven't seen it you will be pleasantly surprised.

What I probably enjoyed most about PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES was that it's a different take on the afterlife-theme. As much as it is a compelling movie that draws you into its mystery, it also hesitates in settling on one genre which makes the movie a bit slow at times. Luckily the story is intriguing enough to keep you interested. I really wanted to see this film because of two reasons. One being director Nick Willing. I had already seen his DOCTOR SLEEP (aka HYPNOTIC) and THE RIVER KING which I enjoyed very much. The second reason was that I'd seen that other fairy-movie based on the same events involving a photograph showing a true fairy at the beginning of the 20th century. That movie was FAIRYTALE: A TRUE STORY and was released the same year as PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES. Even though I recall liking FAIRYTALE a little bit more, I still have to say that Nick Willing made an astonishingly beautiful debut with PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES.The movie is part love-story, part fairy-tale mystery, part drama and that's what slows the general development towards the final conclusion a bit down. Still, the swifting between genres happens very smoothly. The acting was very decent all the time, especially Toby Stephens playing Charles Castle. His character is given a lot of depth. He is a war-photographer who loses his fresh wife in a mountain-accident the day after their wedding. He then stumbles through his life a bit cold-hearted and unaffected by danger. After the war he turns to the routine of portrait photography. Until the day a woman walks into his office, showing him a blurry photo of a girl holding a fairy in her hand. After some tests, Charles is convinced the photo isn't fake and sets off to solve the mystery.Like I said, Charles Castle has a lot of psychological content, which is always good for a protagonist. The only problem concerning the actors I had, was with Ben Kingsley. It's a bit sad, really, but after seeing him in BLOODRAYNE and A SOUND OF THUNDER, I simply cannot take the poor man seriously anymore. The sets and costumes were all convincing as well as the occasional effects (only the scenes on the snowy mountain were clearly filmed on a set, making it all look a bit fake). The movie has a very nice musical score by Simon Boswell, but it does feel a bit too dominant at times. Even though I figured out very early the exact origin of the fairies, I couldn't possibly predict the actions of the protagonist towards the end. There were quite a lot of elements in the story I liked (the flower used as a drug to alter perception, the origin of the fairies,...) and I also liked the ending. But I thoroughly disliked the little epilogue on the mountain. What the hell were the filmmakers (probably the producers) trying to say with it? It would be very stupid to make us believe that between the prologue and epilogue the movie simply didn't happen. That might work for a psychological horror movie, but not for this type of film. So I'll rule that option out. I think I'll simply please myself with the explanation that the scriptwriter was trying to say that in a perfect world, Charles Castle would have been able to save his wife on the mountain. Sadly the real world isn't perfect, end of story. That would work more for me than the producers trying to shove a forced happy-end feeling down our throats. And otherwise I would deduct a serious amount of points from the over-all rating for PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES, which I refuse to do. Because this movie is beautiful and worth seeing.

One of the best movies I have ever seen in my life and believe me I have seen quite many.With Beethoven's music this film becomes nearly perfect.It's shocking from start to end and what an end it is! If you can,do watch this movie and consider "love" and "life" once more.

Photographing Fairies was loosely based on the book of the same name by Steven Szylagi. It deals with a fictional fairy incident of two girls, in post World War 1 England, who claimed to have photographed fairies; as seen through the cynical eyes of a photographer bent on proving the girls false. Charles Castle, a British photographer who specializes in trick photography. He is a man haunted by the death of his wife. Following a visit to a Philosophical Society meeting where he debunks the mystical by explaining tricks of the camera along side Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he is approached by a woman who has taken a photograph of her daughter with a fairy standing in her hand and is asked to try and disprove the pictures using empirical logic and the modern camera obscura. This begins his adventure into a world he has never believed in and has gone out of his way to disprove. What he finds is unexpected and spiritually magical. Photographing Fairies is as surprising and touching a movie as it is haunting. High-quality cinema at its best - great acting, a clever story, superb special effects, spell binding soundtrack, and an intriguing examination of the religious and philosophical questions we all face. Love, death, grief, spirituality, and rebirth / redemption; these are the critical elements that weave throughout this movie. Toby Stephens gives a stunning performance as a character, Charles Castle who radiates Humanity and feeling, portraying the personal conflict of a man grasping for understanding years after the tragic accidental death of his wife on their honeymoon. Ben Kingsley offers a ruggedly convincing yet disturbing performance as the country preacher (and father of the girls) ministering to his flock amidst the spiritual void of his times in a post WWI English village. He masks the feelings of pride, avarice, rage, homicide, jealousy, infidelity, gluttony, nearly all the seven deadly sins and more. His is the perfect counter to the fantasy elements and brings a convincing sense of realism to the storyline. The girls in this movie are surprisingly innocent in their well-scripted dialogue and action scenes. They are pivotal characters to the childlike view that pits adult sensibilities and reason to the spiritual test.The music was a subtle treasure throughout the movie. Its main theme is played as everything from a dance tune to a funeral dirge, and it will stay with you far after the movie. It is that `haunting' quality of the tune that adds that extra ethereal touch to the total effect of the movie. The 'death song' is a part of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, and has been recorded by Sarah Brightman as Figlio Perduto. The movie has definite religious undertones. Photographing Fairies makes no distinctions about beliefs. The preacher-father character is the pastor for a small church, and the heaven ideas can be adapted to suit almost any taste. Its challenge is to the basis of belief itself, and begs to ask a single daunting question "What if heaven were as real as a place?" Much of the magic that makes Photographing Fairies such a resounding success is the elements of love / death / and the longing to recapture ones state of personal grace. A feeling of redemption as real and achievable as the magic of a child's innocence. No matter what your philosophical/religious beliefs are, you will be moved by what you feel in this movie. Its touching message will compel you to view this movie over-and-over again.