Film Forum: Brideshead Revisited

Congratulations to my good friend Alissa Wilkinson, who makes her debut as a Christianity Today Movies film critic today with a 3 1/2 - star review for Brideshead Revisited:

Portraying these types of complex characters always presents a challenge, but with this cast, one could hardly go wrong. Thompson is regal, imbuing the potentially one-dimensional Lady Marchmain with just the right mixture of emotion and frigidity; Gambon makes a perfect lovable rogue of Lord Marchmain. Goode and Atwell share excellent chemistry.

But it is Whishaw whose performance lights up the screen. Last seen as a narrative Bob Dylan in I'm Not There and a deeply disturbing murderer in Perfume, he disappears completely into Sebastian in all his playfulness, confusion, depression, and final peace. Whishaw is still a relatively new onscreen face, but a role like this augurs well for his staying power as a complex, accomplished actor.

Considering the widespread appeal of last year's acclaimed Atonement, it's surprising that Miramax hasn't chosen to push Brideshead Revisited toward a wider audience. The two films merit comparison. Both are epics that begin in post-World War I England, both are visually sumptuous and emotionally affecting, and both deal with themes of guilt, grace, and redemption.

But Brideshead is arguably the better movie.

It's interesting that this is the report at CT on the film, after several worrying articles have appeared about the film in Christian media outlets. Here's one that appeared at InsideCatholic.com:

Based on the comments of its director, Julian Jarrold, and screenwriter, Jeremy Brock, the new version presents Catholicism not as the solution to the novel's central dilemma -- an adulterous love affair -- but as a problem to be overcome.

And from Victor J. Morton (RightWing Film Geek):

I fearlessly predict... that the new BRIDESHEAD REVISITED movie will suck pretty hard. We can already be morally certain that it will be a vulgar reduction of Sebastian in ways designed to pander to contemporary narrowness and sex obsession.

Or this from Gina Dalfonzo at The Point:

Brideshead

But what about checking in with another person who has actually seen the film? Here's Andrew Sarris:

Brideshead Revisited

Ebert, on the other hand, says:

While elegantly mounted and well acted, the movie is not the equal of the TV production, in part because so much material had to be compressed into such a shorter time. It is also not the equal of the recent film "Atonement," which in an oblique way touches on similar issues. But it is a good, sound example of the British period drama; mid-range Merchant-Ivory, you could say.

And now this:

Matt Prigge in the Philadelphia Weekly

BridesheadBrideshead Revisited

Here's the trailer.

UPDATE:

Steven Greydanus - Decent Films:

Even the portrayal of the Flytes’ dysfunctional Catholicism isn’t without merit. Sebastian’s line “I’m not a heathen, I’m a sinner,” is not from the book (“half-heathens” is how Waugh’s Sebastian describes himself and his sister Julia), but I think Waugh might have approved.

Yet this Brideshead Revisited ultimately subverts Waugh’s subtlest and most subversive achievement: It offers all the foibles and puzzlement of the Flytes’ religious world, while all but obliterating the threads of grace running through their lives.