Indie Review: BRIDESHEAD

For the mini-review of the indie film of lesser importance, Bottle Shock, click here.


Brideshead Revisited



Starring- Matthew Goode, Ben Whislaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Patrick Malahide



Directed by Julian Jarrold



Grade: B-




"Sebastian and I are a couple of heathens."
"I am not a heathen. I'm a sinner."

To anyone who's seen Atonement and has fallen in love with it, Brideshead Revisited may seem like a blatant knockoff of Joe Wright's vision of Ian McEwan's novel. But very much like a teen slasher picture or a Matthew McConaughey film, the British Period Epic is just its own separate genre. Each one will feature sweeping choreography, immaculate theatre-trained class acting, and high society drama. From Howard's End to The English Patient to The Heart Of Me, British Period Epics are its own brand of demographics.

The true key of distancing Brideshead to the far superior Atonement is less subtle. The acting here is top notch, but just a shade underneath the performances of Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Vanessa Redgrave. The direction by Julian Jarrold is classy, but doesn't quite have the same aesthic pleasure. The writing, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, Overall it does indeed share many similarities with Atonement done to a lesser quality, but Brideshead Revisited gets judged by its own highlights and demerits.

Charles Ryder (Match Point's Matthew Goode) is a middle-class young man off to Oxford in the years prior to World War II. While there, he begins a friendship with the flamboyantly gay Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whislaw), who invites Charles to his family's huge estate, aptly titled Brideshead. Therein lies a mess of conflict; Charles is a modern-day atheist, unsure of what he wants out of his life, but begins to fall for Sebastian's sister Julia (Hayley Atwell). Sebastian is part of a devoutly Catholic family, and being homosexual and confused about the contrasts of who he's supposed to be, turns to alcohol. Their mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), is one of the last of dying breed of nobility and class from England's past, clinging onto to her religion in the face of the problems surrounding her.

Firstly, I've never personally read the book, but knowing what it entails, the film version of Brideshead Revisited seems to lose its deeper meaning. Waugh's novel was chiefly entrenched on the roles Catholicism and atheism played on the wealthy elite and middle class alike, and while Waugh himself was pro-Catholic, he gave principal allusions to both of its faults as well as its merits.

The film hints at it, but neither Jarrold or the screen adapters Andrew Davies or Jeremy Brock are fearless enough to tackle the subject straight on. Instead it just sort of resides off to the side while the temptations of love become the focus of the fim. Rather than looking at Lady Marchmain and Sebastian's religiousness in the face of each of their problems, Brideshead devolves into a mostly straightforward love triangle.

Secondly was the odd nature of the relationships. There were allusions to homosexual experimenting and love trysts in the novel, but the kiss between Charles and Sebastian in the film seemed almost done in exploitation than necessary to the story. Charles' pursuit of Julia rings somewhat hollow as well. It's not that these subjects are bad, but a bigger focus on the way the family crumbles yet finds its strength in its religious beliefs (the death bed scene of their spiritually wavering father is the acme of the film), more akin to the book, would have distanced Brideshead Revisited from its Atonement comparisons.

Wrapping up the film also proves fairly troublesome. It's pretty true to the book in story towards the end, but drags on for a good 20-30 minutes with several false endings that ultimately does not lead us to any particularly better conclusion. There was a proper climax, but it gets ruined with 20 minutes of almost needless extra explanation. We go from 100 minutes of blossoming drama, to 20 minutes of rapid-fire tying of loose ends.

Despite all of these faults, Brideshead Revisited is buoyant with some fine acting. Goode, known to many American audiences for films such as The Lookout and Chasing Liberty is dependable as the lead, performing like a standard Brit of class, never once breaking emotion unless its called for. Whislaw (I'm Not There) is as endearingly touching as Sebastian as he is revolting in his despair. Emma Thompson, matriarch of the Flyte clan, may follow Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett and her own footsteps (Sense & Sensibility) to another Oscar nomination with her domineering performance that voters eat up.

I'm almost tempted to check out the fabled 1981 BBC miniseries, because it is there that Waugh's book has supposedly been done justice. But I'm not a big enough fan of the British Period Epic to seek it out. If you're naturally a fan of the British Period Epic, you won't be too disappointed with Brideshead Revisited, other than maybe that BPE's poster girl Keira Knightley isn't in the film. But if you're new to exploring the genre, I'd advise you to check out Atonement first. Not because this is 'too British' as one may lead you to believe, but because it has