August 24, 2008

Brideshead Revisited, the Movie

So last night kikimonster and I went to go see Julian Jarrold's film adaptation of the class Waugh novel. I liked the book a great deal. This movie should not be taken as an accurate adaptation of the novel. Sadly, it tries to reflect some of the themes of the novel, particularly those related to Catholicism and faith and living a life affected by the Church in 20th century England, and fails terribly. The last half hour of the film is just silly (and that's putting it kindly). Actually the less said about every section of the film that follows Julia's engagement, the better. But even though I thought the last third stunk, even though the first two thirds didn't really reflect the novel correctly, even though the protagonist is largely lifeless throughout ... I'd still give the movie a thumbs up. Why? There are worse ways to spend an hour than seeing Charles Ryder's exposure to the grandeur and beauty and of the Marchmain world, and Charles, Sebastian and Julia's flirting and adventures before everything crumbles away. Plus there's Emma Thompson, who's always a delight to see. And scenes of opulent Venice, who doesn't like that? And, though I'm surprised to say it, I thought (excluding the Morocco bit which is more a problem of directing and writing than of acting) Ben Whishaw was terrific as Sebastian. He comes across as more slight than the book's Sebastian, and he comes across as far more femme than the book's Sebastian. So I was expecting to find him a grating, prancing caricature. But actually I think Whishaw's performance worked very, very well. It fit the character far better than I expected - and it fit the movie's character perfectly. He was my favorite thing in the film (well, along with all the beautiful clothes, vices and devices of his decadent life).

Posted by armand at August 24, 2008 01:17 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies


Comments

I have to say that I loved Sebastian as well. This movie was very reminiscent of the Ivory-Merchant masterpieces of the 1990s, except IM never left you hanging in the last half hour.

Posted by: kikimonster at August 25, 2008 11:48 AM | PERMALINK
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