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Brideshead Revisited

Actor(s): Hayley Atwell, Ben Whishaw, Matthew Goode, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon
Director(s): Julian Jarrold
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Movie Details

MPAA Rating: PG-13
Content Advisory: Sexual Situations
Movie Release: 2008
DVD Release: 01/13/2009
Format: DVD - Color,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
Edition: Dual Layered
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: Spanish
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Number of Discs: 1
Run Time: 2 hrs 13 mins
Studio: Miramax
Members Wishing: 15
Genres: Drama, Romantic Drama, Period Film

DVD Synopsis

Evelyn Waugh's classic novel of love and the British class system has been given a polished screen adaptation in this film version from director Julian Jarrold. Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) was raised in a middle-class household and though he's never known want and is fortunate enough to have been accepted into Oxford, the life of the upper class is foreign to him. While serving in the British Army during the waning days of World War II, Charles is assigned to a temporary base set up on the estate of the wealthy and aristocratic Flyte family, where he strikes up a friendship with twentysomething Lord Sebastian (Ben Whishaw). Sebastian enjoys the pleasures his privileged life has afforded him, but he also senses that something is missing, and he tries to drown his frequent episodes of depression in alcohol. Charles is captivated by the splendor of Sebastian's life, and he finds himself drawn into a web of decadent comfort, while also developing an infatuation with Sebastian's sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell), even as Charles senses his relationship with Sebastian is something deeper than simple friendship. The idyllic days at the Flyte estate come to an end with the arrival of Sebastian's mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), a fierce Catholic who objects to her son's free and easy life and has become increasingly bitter since her husband, Lord Marchmain (Michael Gambon), has left her to live in Italy with the lovely Cara (Greta Scacchi). This was the first cinema adaptation of Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, though it was the basis of an acclaimed miniseries produced for British television in 1981. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Actors

Hayley Atwell - Julia Flyte
Ben Whishaw - Sebastian Flyte
Matthew Goode - Charles Ryder
Emma Thompson - Lady Marchmain
Michael Gambon - Lord Marchmain
Greta Scacchi - Carla
Jonathan Cake - Rex Mottram
Patrick Malahide - Mr. Edward Ryder
Thomas Morrison - Hooper

Member Movie Reviews

Sandra S. (ratracesandra) from CUMMING, GA wrote on 7/24/2009...

1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Found this movie to be long and drawn out, but still enticing enough to keep my attention. "At Brideshead, everthing comes at a price"...

Vanessa V. (sevenspiders) wrote on 2/4/2009...

1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

There's nothing better than a good dramatic, romantic movie with people in fancy old-fashioned clothes and upperclass British accents. Sometimes they can be thought-provoking, sometimes they can be escapist fantasy, either way, they're enjoyable. Brideshead Revisited is neither.

The original story has been not so much adapted as rearranged to fit the stereotype of what the director thinks a Merchant-Ivory movie should be. Everything controversial and interesting in Evelyn Waugh's novel (religion, class, family conflicts, homosexuality, alcoholism, lust, sin) is completely watered down.

The relationship between middle-class atheist Charles Ryder and Lord Sebastian Flyte of the fantastically wealthy Catholic Marchmain family is the center of the original story, but here its delegated to a 3-minute montage of the two handsome collegiates frolicking on the lawn. The focus is then on the romance between Charles and Lady Julia Flyte, which arises without explanation, is completely devoid of any kind of sparks or chemistry, and sputters out without any real emotion from either party.

Emma Thompson is of course, excellent as the rigidly Catholic Lady Marchmain. Michael Gambon is also great in his few scenes as the renegade Lord Marchmain. And Ben Whishaw is believably tragic as the tortured alcoholic, homosexual and perpetually adolescent Sebastian Flyte. But the two romantic leads are about as interesting and romantic as dishwater. And since the moviemakers have in this case chosen to make these two star-crossed jellyfish the focus of the story, the overall quality of the movie follows suit.