A Handful of Dust
by Charles Sturridge
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anjelica Huston, James Wilby, Judi Dench, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rupert GravesDirector: Charles Sturridge
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 114 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-16
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Movie Reviews of A Handful of Dust
Movie Review: You'll want to slap Brenda!
Summary: 5 Stars
Brenda and Tony Last live in a quirky English country house. Tony is perfectly content with their quiet country life with their precocious little son. Brenda, however, is bored and stupid. She longs for the shallow party life in London. She lacks morals, brains, and taste. She becomes involved with an equally shallow person, John Beaver. He's a penniless fop, who relies on being invited to dinner and parties to keep himself fed. You want to slap Brenda for being so stupid and selfish. You want to shake Tony for not seeing through Brenda's web of lies. Of course, her game can't last. The second part of the movie takes us through twists and turns, and it all ends in a most surprising, thought provoking conclusion.
The acting is superb. James Wilby is perfect as the likable Tony who turns out to have more backbone than we thought. Kristen Scott Thomas makes us thoroughly dislike Brenda. Rupert Graves is so completely different from his previous role as the gamekeeper in Maurice. It is rather interesting that in their first movie together, Maurice, Wilby and Graves played gay lovers, and then in this movie (filmed immediately after Maurice) Graves was knowingly cheating with Wilby's wife.
The ending is intriguing. I've thought about what I'd do in Tony situation at the end many times since first seeing this wonderful movie.
Summary of A Handful of Dust
The year is 1932 and Tony and Brenda Last (James Wilby and Kristin Scott Thomas), a devoted and attractive couple with one son, John Andrew, appear to live an idyllic life in the huge Victorian Gothic house which is the symbol of Tony's family pride. One weekend they inadvertently play host to John Beaver (Rupert Graves), an idle young socialite. It is the chance arrival of this penniless scrounger which irrevocably shatters the gentle balance of their lives.Adapted from Evelyn Waugh's Jazz Age satire, A Handful of Dust is a brutal story of a failed marriage with shattering consquences. James Wilby stars as a country gentleman, Tony Last, who loves rattling around his expansive estate, Hetton Abbey. Tony's wife, Brenda (Kristin Scott Thomas), however, pines for London's excitement and commences an affair in the city with penniless aristocrat John Beaver (Rupert Graves). The fallout of Brenda's betrayal includes a family tragedy and creative divorce settlement ultimately undone when fed-up Tony goes on a naturalist trek through Brazil and becomes the hostage of a mad, illiterate explorer (Alec Guinness). One might wonder whether it's more appropriate to laugh or tremble at these events, and director Charles Sturridge's handsome, graceful production ingeniously accomodates the story's streaks of dark comedy and horror. With brief, memorable supporting roles for Anjelica Huston and Stephen Fry. --Tom Keogh
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