over-hyped

Rating: 5/10 (22 October 2007)

I have to admit that it was hype and hype alone which encouraged me to go and see this movie. For weeks, every newspaper and TV show had reports and clips of how "great" the movie was. Also, it was directed by the same man who did "Charles ii the Power and the Passion" for BBC television and that is one of the best period dramas to be made in the last twenty years. So off I went to the cinema with high expectations. Then reality set in. There are three distinct parts to this movie. The beginning, which is too long. The middle, which is too abstract and the end, which is too predictable and makes huge sections of the middle obsolete. Yes, there is some fabulous cinematography and the performances are mannered and well directed. But the story gets lost somewhere. Perhaps it just got buried beneath the mounds of pretentious camera work and over-the-top attempts to create upper class British characters from the 1930s. I've not read the novel so I can't comment on how good or bad an adaptation it is. But as a piece of cinema, it disappoints.