I won't Revisit this (Brideshead Revisited (DVD))

Member Name: mummy2harry

Product:	Brideshead Revisited (DVD)
Date:	18/09/09 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great costumes and scenic shots

Disadvantages: The actors (for the most part), pace of the film

Charles Ryder has made it to Oxford and is happily studying History when he meets Lord Sebastien and the pair quickly become friends. Sebastien wants to take Charles to show him his home, Brideshead, although he is reluctant to introduce him to his devout Catholic mother Lady Marchmain and sister Julia. Eventually, Charles meets the family and begins to lust after Julia, even though he is having some relations with Sebastien. As the years pass, friendships fail, new relationships are borne and hearts are broken - but Brideshead remains the centre of it all, and is constantly a part of their lives. Will Charles ever be able to win the approval of Lady Marchmain, will Sebastien ever come to terms with his demons and will Julia ever be true to her heart? Or has Brideshead left the Marchmain family cursed?

This film was the choice of my fiance who put it on our "to watch" list after seeing it on the shelf in the library a few weeks ago. We finally decided to watch it this week, setting aside an evening for it as its rather long at just over 2 hours. It's a typical BBC period drama - some big names, great period costumes and glorious settings, so we hoped it was going to be one we would enjoy. It's based on the book of the same name by author Evelyn Waugh, and has been done countless times for TV, so it was going to be interesting to see what spin on the classic story this film would put on it.

If I am honest, I hadn't really heard of any of the cast aside from Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon (who will forever be Dumbledore to me now!). The younger cast members are unknown to me, even a quick look on IMDB didn't bring up any familiar titles in their repetoire but that hasn't ever bothered me before. The main character of Charles was played by Matthew Goode. Straight away, I had a problem with him and my fiance also picked up on this - he just looked far too old to be believable as an 18 year old Oxford student. In real life, he is 31 years old, so I do wonder why they couldn't have picked someone more applicable to the character, and even though the characters ages in the film, the majority of it is set when he is much younger and I felt it was a shame they made this mistake in casting. He was very good at acting and I enjoyed his role but it was overshadowed by the age problem for me.

This wasn't really a problem with Hayley Atwell or Ben Wishaw who play sister and brother Julia and Sebastien, residents of Brideshead. Yes, both are older again that their characters but to a lesser extent that Goode, and I felt they were much more convincing. I did feel that Wishaw's plummy accent was far too put on and contrived for me, and it irritated me more as the film progressed. He almost seemed to make the character of Sebastien a comical stereotype of a gay man, and it didn't fit in at all well with the feel of the film. I didn't mind Atwell's performance, I felt it was good and I enjoyed watching her on-screen, but it wasn't anything mind blowing, she just plodded along averagely enough.

It's a good job that the casting directors chose to include the marvellous Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon in the line up because they really save the film from becoming a disaster. Thompson is just a master of her art and a complete joy to watch. She plays Lady Marchmain to perfection, over-powering the younger actors completely and embodying the role totally. Gambon was also marvellous as Lord Marchmain, living it up in Italy with his mistress Cara, but equally embraces the more serious elements of his role towards the end of the movie too, and it's a shame Gambon and Thompson aren't seen together at all.

The setting of the film was beautiful, and the house used to represent Brideshead is just glorious. It suits the period and the feel of the movie, and the fountain was incredibly well used in the movie too. The scenes in Italy were enjoyable, as were the scenes in Oxford, but people who know Oxford will notice some errors in location in the earlier scenes which annoyed my other half, but I suppose they edit it to make it look all the better for the movie! The costumes were very good for the whole and represented the time period well, but I did feel Atwell's Julia was a little too modern for the film and seemed somewhat out of place occasionally.

My main problem with the film is its length and pace. Initially, we start in Oxford with Charles and quickly the friendship with Sebastien has happened and time seems to be utterly flying by, and therefore the friendship seems too suddent and fast. Then the pace slows again to meander along for a while, losing my attention fast and almost boring me, then picked up again, more time whizzing past and I was somewhat annoyed at the constant uneveness of it. I've also heard that it doesn't stick very rigidly to the novel by Waugh, being far more explicit about Charles and Sebastien's relationship than the book ever was, and it's a shame that the film couldn't be more loyal to its namesake.

We were very disappointed with this film, and had the distinct feeling of "thank goodness that's over" when the final credits rolled. Around 3/4 of the way through, I had lost serious interest in the film and felt that it didn't seem to be going anywhere. I was left quite confused by the final few scenes which left me somewhat annoyed at the end, and I don't think they have done justice to this story at all. If it wasn't for the great Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon, I think this would have been a complete disaster, and I wouldn't recommend you watch this at all. It's slow, very uneven, the young cast seem a tad out of their depths in parts and time seems unaturally quick/slow throughout. Very disappointing, the BBC have done far better than this.

Directed by Julian Jarroled
Writers: Andrew Davies and Jeremy Brock (Screenplay), Evelyn Waugh (novel)
Running Time: 133 minutes
Rating: 12A

Main Cast:
Matthew Goode ... Charles Ryder
Hayley Atwell ... Julia Flyte
Ben Whishaw ... Sebastian Flyte
Emma Thompson ... Lady Marchmain
Felicity Jones ... Lady Cordelia Flyte
Michael Gambon ... Lord Marchmain
Greta Scacchi ... Cara

Thank you for reading.

Summary: A poor attempt at a classic story.