As a fan of British history and films, I was curious to check out the latest film incarnation of Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel, Brideshead Revisited. Set in England during World War II, much of the story is told through a series of flashbacks from several decades earlier. Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) is studying history at Oxford, though his real wish is to become an artist. He meets Lord Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw) and they become friends. While Ryder is strictly middle class and seemingly heterosexual, Flyte is wealthy, homosexual and an alcoholic. However, as time passes, Charles and Sebastian grow closer. It’s impossible not to wonder if Charles is hiding his homosexuality.
These questions of sexuality really lay the groundwork for the entire premise of Brideshead Revisited: conflicted love, unrequited love and illicit love. While Charles is still trying to resolve his feelings for Sebastian, he finds himself attracted to Sebastian’s sister Julia (Hayley Atwell) who is undeniably attractive. As Charles and Julia fall in love, unbeknownst to them, the family matriarch Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) is watching over things with a careful eye on her family’s standing in the upper echelons of society.
Brideshead Revisited has everything you might expect a story of the British upper class to have: socio-economic politics, gender issues and all sorts of manipulative maneuvers (particularly on the part of Lady Marchmain) to keep her out of control family in order. As is often the case, Emma Thompson is superb in the role and her characters actions set in motion events that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats for much of the film.
I will say though this version does suffer some because of its length. The 1981 mini-series starring Jeremy Irons had eleven hours to flesh things out and fully explore all of the different angles in Waugh’s novel. This adaptation is forced to cut many corners. One of which is Charles’ infatuation with the estate itself; a big underlying part of the story that this film doesn’t touch upon, aside from granting Charles a few starry eyed, wistful glances and an urge to return there much later. Also, Charles’ middle class background allows him to look at things from an outsider’s point of view, which means he often comes up with the most thoughtful observations. Later in the film Charles seems more dumbfounded than thoughtful and because he yearns to be a part of this life the interesting contrast disappears, rather than deepens. Having watched the mini-series several times, it seems this to was a corner cut in the name of brevity.
Despite some obvious shortcomings, it would be a mistake to say this version of Brideshead Revisited was a failure. The film succeeds at creating an air of desire, notably between Charles and Julia but also within Sebastian, who engages in a friendship with Charles in hopes of much more. In the end, with the solid cast Brideshead Revisited possesses and the solid acting, this film should find a place in the DVD collections of those that enjoy British film and literature.
The picture quality is excellent. Colors are rich and vibrant in bright interiors and exteriors. Even the darker scenes have fine contrast. There is some grain present and noticeable in the backgrounds of some of the brighter scenes. The film is presented in 2.40:1 aspect ratio and “enhanced” for 16×9 televisions.
Other than the music, Brideshead Revisited is dialogue driven and so the center and front main speakers carry most of the load. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround is clear and free of distortion. It does the job. Subtitles are in Spanish.
Brideshead Revisited does have some extras:
A feature-length audio commentary from director Julian Jarrold, producer Kevin Loader, and writer Jeremy Brock the three discuss the motivations of the characters, and how changes to the source material were needed to suit this fresh take on a classic piece of literature.
“The World of Brideshead” (20:48) is a standard promotional featurette, mixing BTS footage with cast and crew interviews lauding production accomplishments.
“Deleted Scenes” (11:36) extended sequences.
Below is a scene from Brideshead Revisited, “Not One of Us.”
