DODIE Smith's coming-of-age adventure, which opens with the immortal line "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink," has been enthralling readers of all ages for more than 50 years.

So Tim Fywell's film adaptation has much to live up to, and thankfully does not disappoint, blessed with a charming lead performance from newcomer Romola Garai as the precocious, wise-beyond-her-years heroine.

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain (Romola Garai) lives in a crumbling English castle with her dysfunctional family, including her novelist father James (Bill Nighy) who has been struck down with writer's block, her nudist step-mother Topaz (Tara Fitzgerald) and self-obsessed older sister Rose (Rose Byrne).

Life alters drastically when American brothers Simon and Neil Cotton (Henry Thomas, Marc Blucas) inherit the crumbling estate on which the Mortmains live. Over the course of the summer that follows, Cassandra and her kin experience love, loss and rejection, including Rose's wedding to Simon - a match made somewhere a long way from heaven.

I Capture The Castle unfolds from Cassandra's perspective, underscored with a voiceover reciting entries from her diary.

Heidi Thomas' screenplay retains all of Dodie Smith's witty prose, such as the heroine's scornful attitude towards romance - "I know all about the facts of life - and I don't think much of them."- which she is forced to revise after amorous advances from at least two men.

Performances are excellent, particularly the luminous Garai, who bristles with the self-determination and fiery spirit of a young woman on a mission.

The scene in which her character shares a lingering kiss with Simon is beautifully shot and acted, beginning with Cassandra's self-conscious admission, "I look a lot prettier when I'm not standing next to Rose," and culminating in a gentle embrace.

The rest of the cast are excellent too from Nighy's father, full of self-loathing because he can no longer provide for his family, to Byrne as the determined social climber.

The 113 minute running time passes all too quickly. A few months in the country with Cassandra just aren't long enough.

Rating: 7/10