Vanity Fair *** (2004, Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Rhys Ifans, Romola Garai) – Classic Movie Review 1751

Likeable and engaging, director Mira Nair’s 2004 film is a very fair if slightly uninspired stab at filming a difficult novel, plodding relentlessly through the seemingly endless and complex detail and plotlines of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 900-page Napoleonic wartime-set book, with the unnecessary cumbrances of an American star and a Bollywood spin. At the very least, though, it could prove a help for those studying the novel at school.

Reese Witherspoon again shows she’s an extremely competent actress as the social-climbing heroine Becky Sharp with a sharp intensity of performance and a fine English accent. But, arguably, she perhaps doesn’t quite bring the extra something that great movie star actresses would have delivered in the golden days of film-making, or that, say, Gwyneth Paltrow or Nicole Kidman would today.

The Britpack actors might seem just a tad B-list, (you’d expect Judi Dench and Maggie Smith but you get Eileen Atkins and Geraldine McEwan as Miss Matilda Crawley and Lady Southdown). But all of them, especially these two wonderful, revered actresses, prove their worth, with James Purefoy stalwart in the unforgiving role of Becky’s loving, good-hearted but wastrel gambler husband Rawdon Crawley.

Infuriatingly, the movie seems to approve of Becky throughout, even when her behaviour is capricious, greedy, betraying or annoying. And you long for a much more subtle take on the main character in a screenplay (by Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes) that largely fails to tackle Thackeray’s social critique and satirical view of the characters.

That said, the movie is generally very entertaining, witty and amusing, with a handsome, convincingly right-in-period production. Mychael Dynna’s music is insistent when it should be subtle, but Declan Quinn’s distinguished work on the cinematography and Maria Djurkovic’s on the production designs provide full compensation.

The novel is probably better suited to a TV miniseries than a movie, as the BBC’s 1998 adaptation shows. Natasha Little, who played Becky in 1998, is Lady Jane Sheepshanks.

Rhys Ifans (as William Dobbin), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (as Young Georgy Osborne), Jim Broadbent (as Mr Osborne), Bob Hoskins (Sir Pitt Crawley), Gabriel Byrne (as the Marquess of Steyne), Romola Garai (as Amelia Sedley), Douglas Hodge (Pitt Crawley), Tom Sturridge (as Older Georgy Osborne), Meg Wynn Owen (Lady Crawley), Barbara Leigh-Hunt, John Woodvine, Angelica Mandy, Roger Lloyd-Pack,  Tony Maudsley, Kate Fleetwood, Ruth Sheen, Deborah Findlay, Tim Preece, Tim Seely and Robert Pattinson (Older Rawdy Crawley) are also in the stalwart Brit cast.

Geraldine McEwan died at 82 on January 30 2015.

Bafta-winning actress Geraldine McEwan died at 82 on January 30 2015 after treatment for a stroke.

McEwan played Alice, a Lady attending on Emma Thompson’s Katharine, in Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. http://derekwinnert.com/henry-v-1989-kenneth-branagh-derek-jacobi-judi-dench-emma-thompson-classic-movie-review-2092/

McEwan played the witch Mortianna in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. http://derekwinnert.com/robin-hood-prince-of-thieves-1991-kevin-costner-morgan-freeman-mary-elizabeth-mastrantonio-classic-movie-review-1793/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1751

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/