Andrew Davies has been a very busy man. He recently wrote two of the latest BBC/PBS Jane Austen adaptations that were shown this past winter. And, he also had time to co-author an adapt of Brideshead Revisited. I'm thinking it's almost time to decree that all British authors will be adapted by Davies, unless they want to do the screenplay themselves...unless of course they're dead.
Anyway, I haven't seen the TV miniseries and I have not read the book so I won't be able to compare either to the movie I saw. I will say there were moments when you wished that you had just a bit more time to see things happen. The jumps aren't horrid. You just know that there is something more to be experienced.
None the less, Brideshead was a pleasure to watch. It is beautifully filmed and well acted. Unlike most films out this summer, there are no explosions, no evil villains (unless you count Emma Thompson as the overbearing mother), no superheroes. Instead, you have a film examining separation brought on by differences in class and religion. Or at least that's part of it. There's also the multi-faceted love story that spans years. There's humor, there's drinking and two naked guys standing behind a shrubbery trying to not get noticed.
Emma Thompson rules the few moments she is in the picture. She gives depth and understanding to a character that is sucking the life out of her children from birth. Matthew Goode (of the upcoming Watchmen) as Charles and Ben Whishaw (of the completely insane, but brilliant Perfume) as Sebastian work well off each other.
As a whole, the film feels subdued...or maybe I should say sublime instead. It doesn't move fast and the end isn't particularly happy, but if you are looking for something different to end the summer with, Brideshead Revisited is worth the effort.
The Clone Wars however...
I'll say this for it...the kids I went with loved it. Or at least the boys did. They were quoting lines and talking about the movie all the way home. As for me, eh...it was okay. The style of animation I thought was okay. The editing was solid--the action sequences very much follow the style of the live action films. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the score. Well, except for the weird moment of jazz that I had to suffer through in one bar scene. The story goes astray during the last half hour. It feels as though they had a good story to cover 60min. and then had to come up with something to get it to feature length. I will say this, the battle droids have now become comic relief and I will admit that I laughed out loud several times. Perhaps I should be embarrassed. Nah, I've got bigger guilty pleasures hanging over me. I'll mention "Since You've Been Gone" and leave it at that.
Bonus points to whomever did one of the trailers for the new Cohen Brothers movie, Burn After Reading. They used a really great Elbow song for the music. Woo-hoo!
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