Vanity Fair

Plot synopsis:
This film adaptation's storyline begins around 1920 and concludes in 1933. In its opening scene a limousine is traveling down a road outside London. In the car are two passengers, Amelia Sedley (Barbara Kent) and her friend Becky Sharp (Myrna Loy), young ladies who agewise are in their twenties. Amelia is from a rich, well-connected family, while Becky is from very modest means and has no family at all. Given Becky's circumstances, Amelia has invited her to her home for the Christmas holidays.
At the Sedley estate Amelia's family welcomes their guest, but the mother is soon wary of her. Those suspicions are warranted, for Becky aims to use her beauty and guile to gain wealth and privilege by climbing England's social ladder. Her first target for achieving those goals is Joseph, Amelia's much-older brother (Billy Bevan). After Becky tries unsuccessfully to trap him into marriage, Mrs. Sedley sees her cuddling in the home's drawing room with her daughter's fiancé, George Osborne. Disgusted, the mother calls "Miss Sharp" into the adjoining room, where she advises Becky to leave immediately so she can begin the job she had accepted before the holidays, that of governess for the family of Sir Pitt Crawley. Becky heeds the thinly veiled advice and departs.
Upon her arrival at the residence of Lord Crawley, Becky quickly stirs the passions of both the elderly Sir Pitt and his son Rawdon (Conway Tearle). The new governess entices them with her suggestive comments and by allowing each man into her bedroom at night while she glides about in her satin pajamas. Soon she and Rawdon begin a secretive affair, but Sir Pitt finally catches them together in Becky's bedroom. There they inform him they had married the previous day. That news enrages the old man, who orders his son and his "shameless little hussy" out of his house.
Relocating to a townhouse in London's Mayfair district, Becky and Rawdon feel the financial strains of being cut off from Lord Crawley and his wealth. The couple at first brings in money by betting and cheating their friends playing bridge. That income, however, is insufficient for their mounting bills, so Becky schemes to find other ways to get money. She does so through blackmail and by obtaining gifts from a string of lovers, including George Osborne, now the husband of her friend Amelia. Eventually, even Rawdon cannot tolerate his wife's wanton, criminal behavior. On the evening he is released from police custody for writing bad checks, Rawdon finds Becky at their home with another lover. He declares their marriage is over and gives her only ten minutes to vacate the premises. As she leaves, he informs Becky that his father had just died, and he is now the new Lord Crawley. He then warns her that if she ever dares to refer to herself as "Lady Crawley," he will track her down and kill her.
Several years pass and Becky lives in a far less affluent, largely French-speaking area of London. There she prowls the area's bars and casinos, getting money from the assorted men she meets. One evening in a casino, she sees Amelia's brother Joseph, who updates her about his sister's situation. While Becky already knows that Amelia's husband George had died five years earlier in a horse-riding accident, she learns from Joseph that Amelia still refuses to remarry. Subsequently she also learns that her friend's devotion to George's memory and her mistaken belief in his fidelity have led Amelia to refuse repeated marriage proposals from Dobbin, a gentleman who has adored her for years. Sometime later, Becky invites Amelia to her apartment and confesses her affair with George. She then calls Amelia a fool for revering a dead "cad" and urges her to wed Dobbin, who is waiting outside in a car. When Amelia rejoins him after Becky's disclosures, she rests her head on Dobbin's shoulder, implying that his next proposal will be accepted.
The film sequence that follows shows the passage of more years and the ongoing disintegration of Becky's life, which has become a daily struggle marked by petty crimes, prostitution, and meager funds. In the final scene Becky enters her shabby one-room apartment. Lying on the bed is Joseph, stirring from his latest binge. She addresses him as "my love" and informs him that his sister had just given her another check. He is infuriated and tells her never to accept money again from Amelia. Becky turns, sits at a dresser, and stares into its mirror. In the reflection she watches her face transform from the reality of its present haggard appearance to its former beauty. She then notices that Joseph has quietly departed. She also notices on a small bedside bureau that he has torn up his sister's check, and in the dust that coats the bureau's surface he has written Finis ("The End"). The film concludes with Becky lowering her face into her hands and weeping.

Tags: revenge, murder, romantic, melodrama

Review:
I half expected the husband to say "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."Another flaw involves the Indian director Nair's inability to resist bringing in some Bollywood type scenes, particularly one involving Becky leading an Indian type dance, with Indian music, before the king, no less, and to thunderous applause.And yet another thing: this film spans at least twenty, maybe twenty-five or thirty, years in Becky's life after she graduates from finishing school--I am not counting the one scene of her as a child--yet the character never ages.
"Vanity Fair" (2004) is an acceptable but abbreviated version of the classic Thackery Victorian period novel which tells of Becky Sharp (Witherspoon), who uses artifice and charm to climb from lowly governess to aristocrat, always able to find a suitable family of peerage or property to use as a rung in her ladder to the top in spite of the tribulations of the time.
If Becky Sharp, Georgian England's conniving, calculating social climber, had a contemporary equivalent, it surely would be Tracy Flick, the deliciously ambitious high school student played delightfully by Reese Witherspoon in the acerbic comedy, "Election" (1999).Director Mira Nair has said what made Witherspoon the ideal Becky Sharp was the actress' "American energy and sassiness." Fair enough.
You don't transform Goneril and Regan into caring daughters, for instance.That's where Nair's take on William Makepeace Thackeray fails miserably.She and Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes - the two other credited writers, Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet, reportedly disowned the film alleging the shooting script bore no resemblance to their work - have stripped Becky of all her viciousness and cunning.
And that's what Nair's film is.It sparkles for about a half-hour or so as we see a young Becky, played pluckily by Angelica Mandy; then, the older Becky (Witherspoon) leaving school with her friend, Amelia (Romola Garai), and meeting, among others, Dobbin (Rhys Ifans) and George Osborne (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers).
And in an attempt to condense the story, important characters - Amelia and Dobbin, for instance - disappear for long periods and show up solely to wrap up subplots.The highlights are Declan Quinn's striking cinematography, performances by Hoskins and Atkins, the only two who seem to be having any fun, and a superbly restrained Ifans, playing convincingly against type.Much has been made about the Indian influence in Nair's story.
However, no matter how exotic it seems, Becky's dance just doesn't work and seems like nothing more than an imprudent attempt to add a foreign film style into this period piece.Witherspoon, whose English accent falters occasionally, works commendably, but ultimately remains unconvincing through no fault of her own, really.
It's unlikely another actress, say Kate Winslet or Kate Beckinsale, would have fared any better for she'd have worked with the same script and Nair's foolhardy direction, which includes inexplicably asking Geraldine McEwan to not so much speak her lines as to squeal them high-pitched, making the veteran actress' Lady Southdown needlessly irritating.This film remains so emotionally lackadaisical that when Becky finally breaks down before Rawdon, it seems more like a "For Your Oscar-Consideration" moment for Witherspoon than anything else.
The rich period in which the action takes place comes alive in the screen as a feast of colors, which in a way, compensate for the failings on the story and in the way Ms. Nair conceived the way she wanted to tell this tale about an ambitious young woman who is the epitome of social climbing.
As a character puts in the film, Becky Sharp would be a perfect mountaineer.Part of what is wrong with the film is Reese Witherspoon in the central role.
Bob Hoskins, Eileen Atkins, Jim Broadbent, Gabriel Byrne, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Rhys Ifan, Romola Garai, Jonathan Rhys-Meyer, James Purefoy, just to name a few, do an excellent job in the portrayal of their characters.This "Vanity Fair", although flawed, is not a total failure.
Thackeray would have been appalled at this hack job.Were it not for my love for time period films, and the possibility of enjoying this movie as something very separate from the book, I would not care to see it again.
Becky Sharp, played by Reese Witherspoon, became aggravating and tedious, and any sympathy, understanding or patience for that matter, was lost to a plot so drawn and witless, it made 'Charlie's angels' seem thought provoking.The charm and the magic of the William Makepeace Thackeray novel were forgotten in this drawn and soulless remake of a classic.
Elegant costumes, beautiful scenery, and piano playing in excess all  add to the sights and sounds of Mira Nair's film 'Vanity Fair.' Her  2004 version is one of over ten tries to put William Makepeace  Thackeray's novel onto the big screen.
At the center of this movie is Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon), a beautiful blonde from a terribly poor family (her father was a talented but poor artist).
Their relationship is one of the most intriguing points of the film, kind of similar to that of Fast Eddie Felson and Bert Gordon, and Laura Hunt and Waldo Lydecker.Despite most of its characters being cunning and sinister, 'Vanity Fair' is a distinctly moral movie.
Ifans' is a fantastic, heartbreaking performance, the best of the movie.Mira Nair's direction is awesome as well, what other director could make a passable (even good) glittery, belly-dancing scene in a Victorian drama.
The Oscar for costume design will most certainly go to this, and its set design makes the best competition to 'The Terminal' so far this year.As for acting Oscars, well, the way the movie switches from story to story doesn't quite let us get to know most of the characters, but some great performances can still be found here.
Particularly Rhys Ifans, whose performance is so quiet and strong, and Eileen Atkins, who is perfect and hilarious, a true scene-stealer of her performance (and maybe even Byrne, too).And then there's Witherspoon, in one of her best performances as Becky Sharp, the girl who, after learning her lesson by the end, is so stubborn that she's at it again, 7.5/10..
What a strange experience it must have been for Natasha Little to play Jane Sheepshanks, the most goodly character in the story, and witness the insipid Becky of Reese Witherspoon, after having herself starred as the perfect embodiment of Miss Sharp in the BBC dramatization of the novel.
If this was the intended idea the supporting cast would be needed but Vanity Fair is supposed to be about Becky Sharp and the movie is far too much of an ensemble piece for that to be the case.Mira Nair's direction is too present.
It took me a second time to love this movie.The exotic feel of the Indian scenes is the best part, especially when Becky performs an Indian dance for the king.
I am a proud owner of this movie, for the fact it has one heck of a serious plot, and shows the character of BEcky sharp in a light that lets you judge for yourself, whether this "social climber", should be put in her place, or let loose to climb to high society.
So knowing that I am proud to say, that this screen adaptation by Mira Nair really hits the mark.If I wanted to see a book exactly the same on film, I would not have gone to see a film that was publicized, "as a different take on classic material." The book I was forced to read in the 11th grade, and I must say trying to capture 800+ pages on film with all the little subplots would have been tedious and even boring.
If you're not going to even remotely adhere to the novel, don't call it Vanity Fair; make your own movie and call it something else.One last thing, Becky Sharp has been utterly defanged for some reason.
In many ways, director Mira Nair is a daring, imaginative choice to helm this latest film adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's classic novel of social mores in early 19th century England.
It is a feast for the eyes though, as it appears Nair is intent on bringing her native India into the film as much as possible from the brightly colored period costumes to the contemporary-looking exotic dance at the Marquess of Steyne's party (with very anachronistic Rai music in the background) to the happy ending atop an elephant in Jodhpur.
Nair, however, also has a good handle on the comic banter among the characters, and it certainly helps that she has assembled a "Who's Who" of British stage and film in all the roles except the primary one.As Becky, Reese Witherspoon gives it a valiant effort and perfects her British accent to Gwyneth Paltrow's standards, but she seems to be channeling a hybrid of her Elle Woods ("Legally Blonde") and her Tracy Flick (in Alexander Payne's "Election") by way of Kate Winslet in "Sense and Sensibility".
Starring Witherspoon as Becky Sharp, a daughter of a starving artist who seems to fight and claw her way up the social ladder by either being in the right place at the right time or aligning herself with the appropriate aristocrats to push her one step closer to the perch of societal acceptance, Vanity Fair tries to hard for too long to be something that it is not.
However, someone should have warned me that I wouldn't be able to follow the plot through the entire, slow-moving, 2 hour and 15 minute long film.By reading reviews of Vanity Fair, I've gathered that the book was about a sassy and conniving young woman trying to get up the social ladder by any means possible.
This latest literary adaptation definitely makes the grade - scripted by Julian Fellowes (after 'Gosford Park' he's fast becoming a rival to Andrew Davies for this kind of thing), and directed by Mira Nair with a heavy Bollywood influence.Reece Witherspoon - another American playing an English role!
High up in the cast are actors from other places too - Rhys Ifan is Dobbin (surprisingly good if all you've seen him in is 'Notting Hill'), and Gabriel Byrne fails to grasp an English accent but is otherwise memorable as the dissolute Marquis of Steyne.'Vanity Fair' being a brick of a book which is hard to get through, this film version will do much to bring out the relevance of Thackeray's clever text and put it in the 21st century.
"Vanity Fair" is an old-fashioned, huge costume drama that is delightfully more sympathetic to its social-climbing ("She's a mountaineer.") protagonist than such movies more faithful to their sources as "House of Mirth" or "Age of Innocence" and so feels more French, a la Balzac, than British, let alone American.
And with Reese Witherspoon starring in the movie, i think vanity fair should be an eye candy for the viewers.
In Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair,' Becky Sharp makes not a thoroughly successful journey depending on how much you believe a human should give up in order to be socially esteemed.
Director Mira Nair ('Monsoon Wedding') has a sumptuous adaptation of the novel helped or hurt by Reese Witherspoon as Becky, depending on your perception of the actress and the role she plays.Witherspoon, who played white trash rising in 'Sweet Home Alabama' (2002), is just right when she is a working class daughter climbing (described in the film as more a 'mountaineer') because of her facility for language, her charm, and her beauty, all three seemingly in short supply in the maidens of the houses we see.
Though author Margaret Mitchell denied critics accusations in 1936 that the characters of Scarlett O'Hara and Melanie Hamilton were based on Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley...seeing Mira's film it is quite clear that Gone With The Wind was very influenced by the Thackeray classic.
IT IS A BIG HEARTED, VOLUPTUOUS AND SUMPTUOUS ROMP through the England's Regency period...this film has love, lust, war, heaving bosoms, songs, music, dances and to top it all off the amazing talents of Mira Nair and Reese Witherspoon...This is a must see!.
Becky's life is a journey worth experiencing; meeting people like Sir Pitt (Bob Hoskins) and his family, the severe Mr. Osborne (Jim Broadbent), his son George (from "Match Point", Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and his friend Dobbin (Rhys Ifans), the unique Matilda Crawley (Eileen Atkins) and the peculiar Marquess of Steyne (Gabriel Byrne).The mentioned above are people Becky took or could have taken advantage of.
SUPERSUPER.Reese Witherspoon played Rebecca Sharp very well i found Rawdon Crawley played by James Purefoy also very well.In the movie there love is beautiful it's a pity it does last but has to end because Becky really loves Rawdon en Rawdon really loves Becky.It's a pity Rawdon died because i hoped that they would meet again at the end of the movie and she would also see little Rawdie back like in the alternative ending.The movie has everything love, hate, jealousy just everything a great movie in this genre should have!You could cry and laugh at the same time.It's a movie you can watch 10 times after each other..
After seeing Vanity Fair, I must say that I was extremely impressed with Reese Witherspoon and the rest of the cast and I thought it was altogether an extremely well-made film.
From the moment the child Becky Sharp, heroine of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair, is first introduced in Mira Nair's film version of his novel, we are engaged by her presence of mind, astuteness, and wry humor.
"Vanity Fair is a beautiful mess." Sadly I missed this comment before TRYING to watch the movie.I didn't read the book, I didn't know it was total pulp.
Still after going through the 2 hours I can say that this film looks beautiful with exquisite period costumes and settings but the main characters don't come to life.
This is a condensed version of Vanity Fair, a story about Machiavellian social climber, Becky Sharp in the early years of the 19th century.
Director Mira Nair infuses the film with Eastern sensitivities to keep things spiced.Becky (Reese Witherspoon) is certainly determined to get to the highest strata of English society by use of cunning, guile and her sensuality.
Solid movie adaptation of Thackeray's novel, thought I believe some liberties were taken here because I can't imagine king's entertainment being described as ribald as this one.Nair does a good job of following melodramatic story about young, pretty and ambitious orphan girl rise in the society.
VANITY FAIR is a well-mounted adaptation of the classic William Makepeace Thackeray novel, a story which follows the life and loves of Becky Sharp, a girl who rises from nothing to become the cream of society.
Unfortunately it turns out to lack the wit and flair of an Austen novel or the drama of a Bronte book, although whether this is due to the author or not I can't tell as I haven't read the book.Still, VANITY FAIR is a lavish costume drama in any respect, and it's absolutely packed to the rafters with familiar faces beloved to those who watch British TV and film.
Vanity Fair is a film about a young girl named Becky Sharp played by Reese Witherspoon.
William Makepeace Thackeray's novel "Vanity Fair" is a satire telling of the rise, fall and rise again of the social-climbing adventuress Becky Sharp.
That adaptation kept to Thackeray's plot reasonably faithfully, but scriptwriter Julian Fellowes and director Mira Nair evidently thought that that plot would not work on the big screen because they made a number of changes, most notably to the character of Becky, who becomes far more sympathetic than she was in the original.
Reese Witherspoon makes Becky into an appealing heroine, and cannot be held personally to blame for the fact that the character she is playing is far from being the one that Thackeray created.
I like the performances of all of them: Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Romola Garai, Rhys Ifans, Bob Hoskins, Gabriel Byrne, Jim Broadbent and others.In short, the whole movie is good but is not much faithful to the novel.
reese witherspoon, if you have never read the book, does an adequate job, but does'nt quite pull it off.the screenplay is the thing that lets this piece down the most though.a look at the unused scenes suggest that we could have had a more powerful film.perhaps the thing to have done would be to focus on a part of the novel, the action spans 20/30 years.
Yet Indian director Mira Nair recreates the timeless "Vanity Fair" with sharp, deft strokes and the resulting film is a remarkably epic and compelling story that in spite of being stretched long across 2½ hours, feels condensed and poignant in every scene.Nair has also blurred the irrevocable lines between good and bad in 'Vanity Fair' which means that her protagonist Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon) is no given heroine, but inhabits the role nonetheless  a character utterly polarized between unlikeable and greedy and confident and charming.
Did anyone realise that Natasha Little who played Lady Jane Sheepshanks in the 2004 Vanity Fair film actually played Becky Sharp in the TV Series of the same name which was made in 1998 and was a far superior adaptation of the book?
Mira Nair's version of Vanity fair is quite good, it has beautiful landscape some fantastic acting and great costumes, but the plot has lots of holes in it.
Mira Nair's long film version of Vanity Fair, based on the 1847 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, is a stinker.
Reese Witherspoon was an excellent choice for the character of Becky Sharp.
I have not yet read Thackeray's novel, but I look forward to doing so, now that I've seen this film.The movie centers around two friends--Amelia, who is wealthy, and Becky Sharp, who is poor.
The casting is great, and Reese Witherspoon fills the role of Becky sharp perfectly.
It is directed by Indian director Mira Nair, and stars Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp, the ambitious heroine.