Vanity Fair...

[fajrdrako]

On Saturday I went to see Vanity Fair.

I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. I enjoyed it fairly well, but never really got into the story. As I recall, I felt that way when I read it back in my teens. From the setting, I wanted something like Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer. What I got was more like Dickens without the oomph - a Victorian moral tale.

This movie kept making me think of Victorian times - and yes, I know the last part of the movie is Victorian times, but the ambience is still more that of Thackeray's own time than the time in which the story is set. I kept mentally criticizing the costumes (too bright or dark) and the sets (which should have refelected the Napoleonic neo-Classicisim, not the Victorian gothic).

The best things about the movie: James Purfoy and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, both of whom I have always liked. Gabriel Byrne, too.

Comments

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

I've been putting off going. I think I may continue to put it off. I love JRM, and Gabriel, and I don't mind Reese, but it sounds like I'd probably be disappointed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know if disappointment is the word I would use; but I didn't find it an emotionally satisfying movie, and it didn't add to my understanding of the novel.