None of the characters are that likable besides the kid. They could have cut this film into a quarter of the time and everyone would have gotten the point. Ted and Marian seem to have more passion than love, so you can't root for them--and she is a bitch like her mother.
shareParticularly after the pacing problems of "An Inspector Calls", this kept me properly entertained for 90 minutes. But, I agree that Ted and Marian aren't the nicest of characters... While he does seem to develop a certain genuine fondness for Leo, he can turn nasty... While superficially sweet, she's actually very manipulative and can also turn nasty when she doesn't get what she wants... We did get the impression that they're in lust rather than love and that they aren't exactly meeting to hold hands and chat, which makes Vanessa Redgrave's speech about love at the end seem a little naïve and silly. (Though, memory is not always 100% trustworthy and she might have genuinely come to believe over the years that she'd been very much in love...) I've actually been inspired to start reading the book and am interested to see how faithful this adaptation is... Obviously, adapting a complex novel for the tele isn't easy... Plus - there's the fact that they show a particular type of drama on BBC1 on a Sunday evening... "Lark Rise to Candleford", "Call the Midwife", etc. - often very good, but not what you could call challenging... The absolutely exquisite "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" moved away from that style. Though, what with the low ratings and the bizarrely large number of haters, maybe BBC1 won't be quick to break the Sunday evening mould again in future.
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