Set vaguely in the period between the world wars, this adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel not only tackles the usual British period drama themes of class, wealth, and nostalgia, but religion too. Successfully working these into a two-hour feature must have been a daunting task, considering that they provided enough material for the acclaimed 1981 BBC miniseries, which ran eleven hours.
Even as pared down, director Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane) has kept the major plot points. Callow Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) and fey, drunk, wealthy Sebastian (Ben Whishaw) meet cute at Oxford, and soon Charles finds himself involved with the entire clan, including sister Julia, a self-proclaimed hedonist, and their prim mother (Emma Thompson). Whishaw seems diffident, not attractive as he is apparently supposed to be, but the other performances are very good. There is too much here; though it’s never confusing in terms of plot, the switch in thematic focus can be jarring. Ryder transitions from being the audience surrogate to the ultimate subject of the piece, and Catholicism, touched on earlier, comes to the fore in a surprising way.
IMDB link
viewed 8/1/08 at Ritz 5
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