Enid is a 2009 British Docudrama television film that aired on BBC Four on November 19, 2009 starring Helena Bonham Carter as children's author Enid Blyton. The film focuses on the life of Blyton through her writing career and her relationship with her family members. The film was made to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Noddy series.
Tropes found in this movie:
- Abusive Parents: Enid's mother, although Enid really loves her father. There is a brief scene of Enid as a child having a hard time going to sleep over her parents having a very heated argument.
- Bawdy Song: Enid's first husband can be heard singing next to a radio downstairs while drinking liquor. The song he's singing is called "Run Rabbit Run".
- Berserk Button:
- Enid hates when people accuse her for not writing her own books. She is angrily seen reading various mail from the public about various rumors about her.
- Enid also doesn't like it when you bring up her family members, especially her mother. One of her daughters learns this the hard way.
- Bittersweet Ending: The film ends with Enid sitting in the middle of a empty library, and reading one of her books, despite having just read it she has forgotten due to her oncoming Alzheimer's as the camera pans out the room she's sitting in and later reveals the Noddy figure, and a poster version of the first book's cover alongside over covers of her children's books.
- Boarding School: Both of Enid's daughters have to be taken to a boarding school. This is a case of Off to Boarding School with the second daughter, as Enid and her second husband don't want to deal with her growing anger issues.
- Broken Bird: Enid's young daughters. Enid herself can count, considering her tragic childhood/background.
- Control Freak: How Enid is portrayed in the film.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: Happens twice in the film, first is when Enid's father leaves her mother after a heated argument the previous night which Enid and her sisters are hearing during their bedtime. And the second is when she decides to break up with her first husband after learning that he had an affair with another women.
- Docudrama: Though it leaves out some parts of Enid's life such as her time working as a teacher. It focuses mainly on the high points of her writing career, her family problems, and the ghost-writing scandal.
- Dysfunctional Family: How Enid views the rest of the family except for her father.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: In the third act of the film, Enid is seen extremely frustrated when she remembers her daughter not wanting her to come with her to the train station, her first husband leaving her, and her memories of her father and mother.
- Family Versus Career: Enid's mother furiously admonishes her for leaving home for teacher training rather than stay home to help her run the household and raise her brothers (Enid leaves right after and never speaks to her mother again). Enid is also asked the typical "How do you handle having both a job and a family?" question from a radio interviewer years later.
- Framing Device: The film is mostly told through flashbacks during Enid's interview with a reporter from the BBC. Enid Blyton's interview actually took place before she made a visit to a local library to read some of her stories to children.
- I Have No Son!: When Enid learns from her now grown up family member that her mother had died. She tells her second husband that she was dead to her since she wasn't fond of her mother.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Enid has two daughters with her first husband that she realizes (too late) that she doesn't really want. She miscarries her third child, conceived with her second husband. It was a son, which both she and him wanted badly.
- Little "No": Young Enid says this after she learns that her father no longer lives with them.
- Maternally Challenged: When Enid's first baby (Gillian) cries, she just stares at her in bewilderment, covers her ears, and snaps at her to be quiet. She then picks up the dog instead. From there, it gets worse, and the nanny she hires for her second baby is rather stunned by how emotionally disconnected Enid is from daughters.
- Parental Neglect: Enid values the attention of all children...except her daughters. While the two of them are listening to a radio interview, you can see the disbelief on their faces when their mother claims to do all she can to juggle work and child-rearing. They spend most of their time with the household staff.
- The '50s: The movie takes place in 1955, when Enid Blyton is getting interviewed by The BBC talking about her life as an author and her relationship with her family. We also see Enid heading to a library to read one of her stories to children. She is also seen avoiding the press.
- Troubled Fetal Position: When Enid learns about her mother's death. She starts having an emotional breakdown and is seen crying while holding herself on the floor.
- World War II: Enid's first husband mentions about them going to war while Enid is busy playing with the children that visited her for the day.
- Workaholic: How Enid is portrayed in the film when it comes to writing her books.
