The Price of Wisdom: A bit dusty, but strangely charming

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, it depends on how much you love 1930s British cinema. If you are a fan of that specific, polite, slightly stiff rhythm, you’ll probably find something to enjoy here. If you need a movie to move, or if you prefer characters who don’t spend half the runtime looking like they’re waiting for a bus that’s never coming, you will hate this. It’s not exactly dynamic.

The whole thing feels like a stage play that someone forgot to translate into a real movie. Everyone is very earnest. Like, painfully earnest.

The London Fog Factor

Our lead character arrives in London with stars in her eyes and ends up hitting a wall pretty fast. It’s a classic setup. We’ve seen it a million times, but here it has this weird, heavy atmosphere. It reminded me a bit of the claustrophobia in Menschen hinter Gittern, though with significantly fewer prison bars and way more tea service.

The business side of the plot is basically white noise. I stopped trying to track the logistics of the career struggles about twenty minutes in. It just doesn't matter. What matters is watching these people try to talk around their problems.

Odd Little Moments

• There is a scene near the middle where a chair is moved about three feet to the left and it takes an eternity.
• The lighting in the office scenes is bizarrely dark. Maybe they were trying to save on electricity?
• One of the side characters has a mustache that seems to have a personality of its own. It’s very distracting.

I couldn't help but compare the family dynamics here to the much more chaotic energy in Ah Wilderness!. Here, everything is so contained. It’s like the characters are afraid to raise their voices above a whisper, even when their lives are falling apart. It’s polite, but is it human?

Roger Livesey shows up, and suddenly the screen has a bit more life. It’s like he walked onto the wrong set and decided to just roll with it. The movie gets noticeably better when he’s on screen, mostly because he looks like he’s actually thinking about something other than his lines.

Final thoughts (or lack thereof)

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good film by modern standards. But there’s a quietness to it that I found kind of refreshing. It’s definitely not for everyone. You have to be in the mood for it, like a specific kind of tea. If you’re not in that mood, it’s just a long, talky slog. ☕️

I wouldn't rush to watch it, but if you find it on some obscure channel at 2 AM, it’s not the worst way to burn an hour. Just don't expect it to change your life.