One thing I don't get

... is casting a woman in her 50s to be the mother of a 18 year old girl. I mean, it's not unusual in real life, but in the book, Bess was wild at a young age. She ran off with her first husband when she was younger than 18, and then brought back and quickly married off to Coniston. But the book said the marriage didn't last long. She left when her daughter was 2. Logically, that child was born when she herself was only around 20, or even younger. The actress they cast was a good 15 years too old for that role.