I cannot think of another screen adaptation that treats its source with similar indifference, almost contempt.
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08/24/08
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Brideshead Revisited (2008)
68 %
Reviews Counted: 84 Fresh: 57 Rotten:27 Average Rating: 6.5/10
Consensus:
Suspenseful and beautifully mounted, Brideshead Revisited does an able job condensing Evelyn Waugh’s novel.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 2 hrs 14 mins
Theatrical Release: Jul 25, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $5,486,995
Synopsis: Though director Julian Jarrold's adaptation of the Evelyn Waugh novel BRIDESHEAD REVISITED spans decades and continents, it's a taut film that never drags and can excite contemporary audiences. Matthew Goode (MATCH POINT) stars as lower-class Londoner Charles Ryder, an aspiring artist... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon
Director: Julian Jarrold
Screenwriter: Jeremy Brock, Andrew Davies
Producer: Kevin Loader, Robert Bernstein, Douglas Rae
Composer: Adrian Johnston
Screenwriter: Jeremy Brock, Andrew Davies
Producer: Kevin Loader, Robert Bernstein, Douglas Rae
Composer: Adrian Johnston
Reviews
This is a beautiful production that doesn't succeed due to a major casting blunder and how the story switches focus in the final act.
08/23/08
This is that rare film version of a book that captures the essence of the work, while at the same time bringing its own point of view to the table.
08/13/08
It is all very civilized with people retaining their manners even as they verbally shred an individual's dignity or remind them of their station in the social order.
08/10/08
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08/07/08
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08/07/08
Whishaw's Sebastian is a creature not completely of this earth. Watching the matriarchal and religious pressures weigh on his thin shoulders is almost too much to bear.
08/02/08
Boiled down to a manageable 2 1/4 hours, the story becomes uneven and the thematic development lopsided.
08/01/08
Jeremy Brock's screenplay hits the high spots, but leaves many characters - particularly the status-striving Charles - sketchy and incomplete.
08/01/08
You could wish for more, but for that there's still the epic-length miniseries. If you want just two hours of mournful, lovely melodrama of manners, this is a fine choice.
08/01/08
Thompson, though, is marvelous; with understated precision and grace, she makes every word count. Also excellent is Michael Gambon.
08/01/08
What's missing from Goode's performance and from the film as whole is the layer upon layer of accumulated motive -- the gradual evolution of a man's complex desires and even-more-complicated fears.
08/01/08
Top Critic
The fine acting benefits from luxury casting (Thompson and Michael Gambon as Sebastian's separated parents) and the intensity of Goode and Atwell.
08/01/08
When the increasingly anguished and dipsomaniacal Sebastian exits the story, he takes much of our interest with him.
08/01/08
Jarrold's reduction of the story is so archetypal that it's indistinguishable from soap opera.
08/01/08
The film, a distinctly secular take on Waugh’s religiosity, is far more interested in the battle of blind faith vs. rigid unbelief and its devastating effects.
08/01/08
...more fun than expected, and in its own middlebrow way, peculiarly true to Waugh's own vision.
08/01/08
Its scope is broad -- it has three flashbacks in the first 10 minutes before sticking with the 1920s and 1930s -- but its focus is sharp.
07/31/08
Related Forums
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED gets revisited (because no one has 659 min. for the BBC version)
by: Darko, Donnie 8/5
by: Darko, Donnie 8/5
(2008/Rated PG-13)-Evelyn Waugh’s BRIDESHEAD REVISITED visits America on July 25th!!!
by: ReelReviewer.com 7/9
by: ReelReviewer.com 7/9
(2008/Rated PG-13)-Evelyn Waugh’s BRIDESHEAD REVISITED visits America on July 25th!!!
by: THE spammer - NO mercy! 7/9
by: THE spammer - NO mercy! 7/9
(2008/Rated PG-13)-Evelyn Waugh’s BRIDESHEAD REVISITED visits America on July 25th!!!
by: THE spammer - NO mercy! 7/9
by: THE spammer - NO mercy! 7/9
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