2021. The movie is based on the marriage and the troubles faced by author Roald Dahl with his film star wife Patricia Neal. Olivia is their first daughter (named Olivia Twenty because when she was born Dahl had twenty dollars in his pocket.
The family has a good life until their son has an accident when he is four and suffers brain damage. Then Olivia dies of measles which devastates Dahl who dotes on her. He shuts off the world, his wife, his children and retreats into a lonely world. His loss of Olivia distances him from his second child Tessa. When Patricia leaves him seeking space from his behavior and wanting to restart her career with a film with Paul Newman, she comes after her to America. Neal ends up winning an Oscar for her part in that film 'Hud'. The couple see happier times for a while after that.
Much of Dahl's personality comes out in the film - his writing in his secluded room, sharpening his pencils, his muse a little boy who appears and seems to guide him, his penchant to eat chocolates and makes balls of the silver foil, scotch at hand, his extreme sensitivity to criticism. The walks to the local chocolate shop with his children, their suggestions for his book including a river of chocolate etc are endearing. Neal fell sick and was nurtured to good health by Dahl and a band of associates. Both Dahl and Neal supported vaccination for measles heavily.
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