Just got home. Time to scribble a review.
Brideshead Revved: All revved up and no place to go.
Opening night at the splendiferously Art Deco Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. Just a few dour-looking Anglophiles in line behind my friend Vin and me. Not a good sign. No previews for some reason; straight to the film.
I expected that condensing the novel would be a challenge. It started and ended with wartime Charles, but went backwards before going forwards, even inexplicably repeating a scene on the ocean liner.
Very rushed, very loud at the beginning. So rushed, that none of the relationships made any sense. There was no time for the attractions to develop, and even so, no chemistry among the triangulaires. Lots of fake, coarse dialogue not from the novel. Heavy-handed symbolism at every turn: close-up on the dropped rosary; close-up on Julia's crucifix. We get it, they're Catholics!
Strangely, the film slowed down in the last reel, slow like a diamond-encrusted turtle.
Overly dark interior shots, odd camera angles, lots of statuary framed against the sky. It seemed that half the film was the same close-up of Matthew Goode, showing the same face with the same expression. Granted it's a nice face, with big greenish eyes. But it managed to convey absolutely nothing. His Charles was very unsympathetic; always peering in doorways, he seems as shallow as a gold-digger.
Poor Ben Whishaw. (Sorry, Gil.) His Sebastian is neither cute nor charming. Rather, he's slight, high-pitched, whiny, sing-songy and pathetic. So he doesn't really have too far to fall. The kiss was completely chaste and forgettable.
Hayley Atwell as Julia. Hmm, well, at least she looked like she could be Ben's sister.
Emma Thompson surprised me: she was not the she-devil I had expected from the trailer; rather the opposite. Hers was the most subtle performance, even while uttering some awful lines.
I liked the guy who played Rex (Jonathan Cake). He made a great and believable cad.
The rest of the cast were caricature cameos; most were given 8.2 seconds. Even Anthony Blanche was boring.
Directing: choppy.
Script: coarse, obvious, no poetry.
Cinematography: annoying.
Cast: unsubtle, no passion, no chemistry.
Costumes: some strange choices, but I liked Sebastian's red pyjamas.
Music: maybe the best thing.
Castle Howard: too many scenes at the damned fountain.
Venice: completely wasted.
Miscellaneous: why were there giant cargo planes landing in Brideshead's backyard?
My friend Vin's review: "why bother?"
Summary: Brideshead Reader's Digest.
