Turtle Diary
Director: John Irvin
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 2.5
A quiet, little film about two lost souls who come to share an obsession with massive turtles 'trapped' in their tank at the local aquarium. The one (a very good Ben Kingsley) works in a bookstore, the other (Glenda Jackson, who is too cold and strange to be likable) is a famous author whose only companion is a water beetle she tends to in her apartment. Together, they team up with one of the workers at the aquarium (Michael Gambon) to steal the turtles and put them in the sea where they belong. Different, but dreadfully slow and overly symbolic (the turtles represent the two leads and their mundane lives). Astonishingly enough, the great playwright Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay ... it's not his best effort.