Truly awful film

You make good point about how the stylized acting, lavish production, and "in-the-theater" conceit undermines both the realism and complexities of the great novel

Agreed! Well-stated.


"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

I really enjoyed it. I know how much the novel means to a lot of people and it is very stylized, too much so probably. I do have to say that I enjoyed this one much more than the Vivien Leigh 1948(?) version.

Without having read it (I'm halfway through now) I knew less than five minutes in that Joe Wright was taking liberties. Maybe that isn't the right word...

The one thing that is a bit shocking to me is how shy and awkward Aaron Taylor Johnson is in interviews. He seems like a born actor.

I also liked seeing Jude Law in such a role. I think he's always been talented, but when you look(ed) like that you aren't always taken seriously. I know that's a generalization and after "Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain" anyone should recognize talent and not just looks.

I thought that Knightley looked beautiful and captured the characters plight perfectly.

6/10. I don't think that you can take a piece like this and try to film on a stage, which clearly doesn't work. It's interesting at times, but feels shoehorned in many scenes. I know that Tom Stoppard is very talented, I just think that this wasnt his best work/adaptation.

yeah, the art direction was too extravagant and distracted from the story, not that there was much story there

overall a pretty average movie that wont leave a mark on you after you've seen it





so many movies, so little time

Very disappointing film. Like the OP I think the novel is great, and am also a big fan of the 1948 version with its incredible performance by Vivien Leigh. I came to this film expecting a great film given the very talented cast. I also admired the director's work in Pride and Prejudice, although I do prefer the 1940 version of that with Greer Garson.

But the whole in a theater conceit overwhelmed the story. I am not averse to experimental or unconventional film. But here it served only a "look at me!" purpose and detracted very much from the effort.

In fact I came very close to turning it off about a third of the way through. The cast saved it to at least some extent, the excellent Keira Knightley mostly responsible, with a nice assist from others including a radiant Alicia Vikander and in smaller parts the always awesome Kelly Macdonald and usually so Emily Watson. The male actors somehow were not quite as good. The best of them I suppose was Matthew MacFayden.

But for the cast I would have gone much lower, but they saved it to arrive at a mediocre 5 out of ten. I will not waste time seeing this one again, either.

I will be slightly kinder, and say that the film is an ambitious failure. It does look gorgeous, but all the pretty staginess really drains the emotional impact out of the story - it's as if the director didn't think that the story was worthy in telling in its own right. To him, it was just something to pile cinematic stunts onto.

Which isn't the only reason I think Joe Wright is a Michael-Bay-level hack with pretensions, but it's a big part of the reason.