Not bad, but ...

Rating: 2/10 (1 September 2009)

...not great either. Casting was poor -- Keira Knightley was pretty good, Judi Dench was amazing; but a lot of the cast varied from ordinary to poor. Donald Sutherland and Jena Malone in particular looked completely out of their depth. The story was dumbed down; everything flowed very logically, but it left me cold. Part of the problem is that the story is too long for a feature length film; it is more suited to a mini-series format. They've made the right cuts logically; but unfortunately, in the process, killed the soul of the movie. The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at though; they've shot on location -- and every frame is lit beautifully. All in all; it wasn't bad by itself; but it just can't stand up to the 1996 miniseries.