Brideshead Revisited

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

A second tilt at Waugh's classic attempts to be this year's Atonement but misses.

Those who fondly remember the 1981 television mini-series will likely be the most enthusiastic about this new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's 1945 classic English novel.

Those not so enamoured with the author or story will, however, find it a rather long, drawn-out affair.

There is no doubt this is a beautiful film to watch and the stately locations are very nice. The casting however, is a little more questionable. Matthew Goode plays the impressionable middle class artist Charles Ryder (played by Jeremy Irons in the earlier version) who befriends Sebastian Flyte of the  the aristocratic Marchmain family while studying history at Oxford. Goode has the good looks for the role but it's a cold performance which makes Charles hard to read or care about.

Sebastian, a homosexual tormented by his strict Roman Catholic mother Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) is played well by Ben Whishaw who fits Anthony Andrews' old shoes well enough. He quietly falls in love with Charles, and together they share an idyllic summer together at Brideshead, the family estate and at Sebastian's estranged father's palazzo in Venice.

While the extent of Charles and Sebastian's relationship is never clearly stated, when Charles and Sebastian's sophisticated sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell), suddenly have eyes for each other Charles' relationships with pretty much everyone in the Marchmain family get increasingly complicated.

While it's impressive that director Jarrold has managed to condense Waugh's novel down to just over two hours, the pacing of the film is erratic. There are long periods where very little seems to happen, making the film seem much longer than it really is. And too much time and focus is spent on Sebastian and Charles' ambiguous and provocative relationship. It doesn't help that the film lacks any real emotion or climax, and it's hard to get involved with these repressed characters as they do very little to endear themselves to us.

While the film captures the pre-World War II era, the slow decadent decline of the young aristocracy and the suffocating effect of Catholism on the Marchmain family,

Brideshead Revisited

is more style than substance. While embracing Waugh's thoughts on class, sexuality and religion, it lacks his sense of complexity to be truly effective, and you have to wonder about the relevance of this story in today's world.

Francesca Rudkin

Cast:

Michael Gambon, Emma Thompson, Ben Whishaw, Matthew Goode

Director:

Julian Jarrold

Running Time:

133 mins

Rating:

M (sex scenes)

Screening:

Skycity, Hoyts, Berkeley, Bridgeway, Rialto Cinemas