Hot Mess

[oselle]

I love Brideshead Revisited, both the novel and the luscious 1981 Granada Television miniseries that was a word-for-word adaptation of the book. I have no idea why anyone felt compelled to make a feature film of Brideshead when there was no way a 2-hour movie could improve upon the miniseries and I'd heard that the film version was bad but no one said it was BLOODY AWFUL and wow, I wish someone had because they would have just saved me $1.99 at Blockbuster. I rented this out of curiosity and I'm sitting here kind of stunned because it's virtually unwatchable no matter how you look at it -- it's a dull and incoherent movie all on its own, but as an adaptation of a novel it's absolute crap.

Maybe I'm unclear on the concept but I thought the film adaptation of a book was supposed to have something in common with the book besides the title and the names of the characters. I don't know how anyone got this script out of that book. Everyone is saying and doing things they never said or did in the book in a way they never would have said or done them -- not in a million years. They're completely different people and so this is a completely different story. It's nothing more than a plodding romance in which the book's central themes of religion, privilege, temptation and loss have been completely abandoned.

The casting is also dreadful. Charles is not bad but he's playing Charles as a straightforward nice guy, not as the pompous, self-absorbed prick that Charles Ryder really was and that Jeremy Irons captured so well. Sebastian was supposed to be strikingly, sinfully beautiful and this skinny kid playing him is merely kind of cute and has none of the decadent, charming languor that Anthony Andrews brought to the role. Neither he nor any of the actors portraying the Flytes (including Emma Thompson) convey the aristocratic confidence (and shallow, ornamental uselessness) of the ancient-money rich the way their counterparts in the miniseries did. And for pity's sake, it's not even prettily filmed, not once managing to display Castle Howard and its grounds to their full grandeur.

Oh my God, Rex Mottram just told Charles he'd have to buy Julia off of him. He did everything short of twirling his moustache and going bwhahaha. GOOD GOD. What a hot, hot mess of a production. Who greenlit this piece of shit? The very walls of Castle Howard must be groaning.

Comments

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

I loved the book so much that in college I always had a copy with me. The miniseries was so delicious I could barely even stand up around it.

So I'm really, REALLY glad I took a pass on seeing the movie. The preview I saw didn't seem right -- I don't know, it just didn't SOUND like BR. Thank god I didn't see it. That would make me CRY.

(I have to laugh, though. I was so in love with the story that I seriously toyed with the idea of carrying a bear around with me; I don't think I went that far, but it gave me a passionate interest in teddy bears I never had as a child.)

[oselle.livejournal.com]

At one point I owned three different editions of this book and I'd probably still have three if I hadn't lost my miniseries tie-in edition in a plumbing disaster. I also have the complete miniseries, sadly on VHS, which I've long been meaning to replace with the very expensive DVD set.

Am I misremembering this or didn't toting around teddy bears become briefly fashionable in England during the Bridesheadmania that surrounded the miniseries?

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

You aren't misremembering at all! I remember hearing about it. Didn't see much of it here in Looooobock, Texas, but yeah.

I just watched a clip on Youtube. Holy crap, was Jeremy Irons YOUNG then. ::weeps:: Come to think of it, I'd just graduated from high school. *I* was young then, too! DAMN.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I was a high-school freshman while that series was airing and I can still remember sitting on the couch doing my homework with that theme in the background. Every Monday night for nearly three months. Man, they don't make em like than anymore. Man, I'm OLD.

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

Also, I was utterly wracked with adoration for Sebastian. I'd already been writing slash for some years at that point -- illicitly of course -- and this was a revelation. I had no one to talk to about it. But the homoerotic factor and the abject love for Sebastian were key. Well, Anthony Andrews. He didn't stay as pretty later on, who among us does, but then? He was spectacular.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I hate to admit it but when I first saw the series I was still young enough that the real nature of Charles and Sebastian's relationship sort of went over my head. Duh.

Anthony Andrews really didn't hold onto the pretty for very long, did he? That reminds me that years ago, I stumbled across some messageboard where fans were talking about how Andrews had lost his looks because of the stress of having to be married and have kids and deny his TRUE GAY IDENTITY. This was a good five years or so before I'd ever heard of slash or tinhats or RPS and I remember being stunned that there were people out there utterly convinced that Andrews really was gay (and still carrying a torch for Jeremy Irons, apparently). LOL, talk about naive. Oh, and J2 4-ever!

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

He did not stay pretty at all. I was devastated when I saw a picture of him sometime back -- THAT is SEBASTIAN?? NOOOOO!

I was a weird kid, I guess; I wrote my first slash (such as it was) when I was about 11. I blame Kirk and Spock. (The actually slashy Kirk/Spock, she adds with a teeeeeny-tiny sneer, and promptly gets shot in the head.)

(Sorry, that was uncalled for. I blame the generalized clinical depression.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I think I was the weird kid. It wasn't until I read the book that I really got that Charles and Sebastian were lovers. DENSE.

Man, Kirk/Spock. People have been shipping those two for what...40 years now? That's gotta be a fandom record.

[slipperieslope.livejournal.com]

*cringe*

I have not seen it, but I tippy-toed by it due to the resounding silence that surrounded the opening. I gathered it was so badly done no one even wanted to think about it enough to trash it. I was around for the 1981 event and it was so profound, guests refused invitations to a White House dinner that dared to be held on the night of the finale.

Thanks for the warning - I shan't be further tempted to even take a peek.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I read some of the reviews when the movie came out and while they were all lukewarm I don't recall anyone coming right out and saying MY GOD THIS IS AWFUL, which somebody totally should have. Don't even waste a second on it.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up! I was kind of curious about the movie, but sounds like you've spared me some pain...

I love the book, and adored the miniseries. The casting was amazing, even aside from gorgeous Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews--it had Laurence Olivier, didn't it? And the locations...

Okay--just thinking about it makes me want to see it again--wonder if it holds up?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Yes, Laurence Olivier played Lord Brideshead and it holds up, believe me. I'll bet the remastered DVDs make it look even better than it did when it originally aired.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

*rubs hands in delight* It's going in my netflix queue then! (it's gotta look better than it did on our tiny old family TV set in 1981--though I was absolutely fucking mesmerized at the time...)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Totally holds up. I remember a years ago they showed it again and everybody at my job got into it all over again.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

it's going in the netflix queue!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I avoided this movie because it seemed pointless but even I never expected it to be this bad. The casting looked completely bad compared to the miniseries but wow. This goes beyond the pale.

I'm clicking on the theme on my ipod now!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

It's like they did everything they could to rewrite the book. Even on the rare occasions when they use Waugh's own dialogue, it's staged so differently in context and delivery that they might as well not have bothered.

LOL, you have the theme on your iPod!

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

I still thank the Gods of Cinema that the Empire Leicester Square managed to delete its digital copy on the night I was almost forced to go and see it :D

[pearlette.livejournal.com]

gosh, did they really? that was clever of them!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Boy, talk about not missing anything. I hope you got to see something good instead!

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

We just took the money and ran :D

[pearlette.livejournal.com]

I actually paid to go and see this. You can all throw rotten tomatoes at me now!

You’re right, it’s rubbish. *blush*

Although I adore Emma Thompson, the film’s take on Lady Marchmain as a one-dimensional Catholic fundamentalist cannot begin to compare with Waugh’s exquisitely nuanced writing. Waugh certainly portrays her as a control freak -- but she’s not a monster.

Like you, I adore the original novel and the sublime 1981 series. Anthony Andrews’ finest hour. Le sigh!!!!! And that wonderful, wonderful music …

The final episode was unbelievably, incredibly moving. Just … the most exalted television drama ever made …

[oselle.livejournal.com]

the film’s take on Lady Marchmain as a one-dimensional Catholic fundamentalist cannot begin to compare with Waugh’s exquisitely nuanced writing

They didn't even manage to get her one dimension right! Do you remember the scene where she triumphantly announced Julia's engagement to Rex as if she had powerbrokered her off in an arranged marriage? I just about fell off the couch. They literally made Lady Marchmain into an entirely different character. Andrew Davies was one of the screenwriters and I think he's the guy who's done some terrific adaptations of classics like Bleak House, so I don't know if he was smoking crack when he wrote this or was just daunted by the abbreviated feature film format or what, but wow, what a sad, sloppy disaster.

[pearlette.livejournal.com]

Indeed, Andrew Davies usually gets it right. He was really having an off day with this one ...

[laurie-bug.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saving me from a heartbreaking experience -- I, too, LOVED the original mini and the book...being that it was dedicated to "Laura", I took it as a sign. (grin) I was in my freshman year of college, and I actually HAD an Aloysius bear (didn't carry him to class, tho). My best friend & I had a picnic under a tree on the quad, wearing our flowy white dresses, and eating cucumber sandwiches & tea, while her friend played the cello for us. We thought it was a perfectly normal thing to do, being the Anglophile romantic dorks that we were!

Sigh. Now I want to buy the original dvd and snuggle up with Aloysius.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Since you have such cherished memories of both the book and the original series, you want to avoid this movie LIKE THE PLAGUE. AWFUL.