brit wit personified

I agree, moss chops. I am going to look up Dora herself online and see what information about her/her psyche that they left out of this film, because looking at the film alone, she is a complete doormat. Why would she WASTE her love on someone who a) had next to no personality whatsoever. Fine, he's a self-absorbed, in-love-with-his-own-voice pseudo-intellectual, with almost no sense of humor and so little feeling. If he's using a gruff exterior or his homosexuality to hide "instead deeply held, intense feelings" for her, I'm not buying it. Why on EARTH would anyone give so much of herself, as Dora did, for almost NOTHING in return. It still makes no sense (I've seen it 1.5 times...I'm halfway through the second viewing, but I wanted to come down to write this)...and I also don't know why she bothered wasting her time with the blond guy...she respected pacifists, and liked Litton, who was definitely a pacifist, but she marries this blond who said he'd kill anyone himself, if he could, who would desert a war. Then she had the first guy, with dark hair, who she "dated" for five years or so, who wanted a normal, healthy relationship with her, and she pushed him away. Fine, she wasn't in love with him, I guess. But why waste your time and marry one who is politically so different from you and an eventual filanderer, and waste more time with a gay guy who had about as much humor and emotion as a dry wall. And then, to make matters worse, Jeremy Northam, who she seemingly had a healthy romantic and sexual life with, then tells her he doesn't find her physically attractive. Well, at least she apparently dumped him.

I wish the film went more into why she was so drawn to Litton. Yes, when she first tells him, when they're sitting down by the tree, that she likes being around him...that's not enough of an explanation. I see very little in common between them. And then, when he leaves for a while while she "sets up house", so to speak, on the little cottage they bought in the country (she probably bought it), and returns, he comes back with his two heavy suitcases and small box that contains lightbulbs. That's his contribution to fixing the house. And, he carries the light box while he lets her kill herself lifting his two heavy leather suitcases. This little scene bugged me to no end. What the hell kind of a man is he, gay or not gay, to let a woman carry not one, but TWO suitcases while he's carrying a 1-lb box of lightbulbs. My disgust for Litton was firmly entrenched from this scene forward. He was a completely egotistical, self-absorbed, self-important piece of excrement. It saddens me when people waste their lives pining over the wrong person...and she goes so far as to kill herself for him after he was too late in declaring his "love" for her.

I love Emma Thompson, and the acting was great, and her cheekbones looked great in that haircut....but both Dora and Litton drove me nuts.