Vanity Fair (Widescreen)
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Movie Reviews of Vanity Fair (Widescreen)
Movie Review: Visually Stunning Illustration of Social Climbing...
Summary: 4 Stars
Identity usually relates to an individual's parents, the values transmitted by the parents, and the experiences acquired throughout life by the individual. Peoples' choices of life experience were rather limited in 19th century England where the people were more or less assigned to a spot in society based on who the identity of their birth parents was. Women's' choices were even more restricted, especially so if the birth parents had passed away during childhood. If girls without parents were lucky they ended up in a decent orphanage, and a decent orphanage during the 19th century was crude and dirty compared to modern standards. If a woman would try to climb the social ladder it was considered ridiculous and a lack of good manner.
In William Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair the reader can follow the orphan Rebecca `Becky' Sharp struggle to make her life better than it was for her departed father, a talented painter with modest success. Mira Nair undertakes the big task of recreating the fictional masterpiece in a period film where Becky (Reese Witherspoon) decides to climb in society without consideration of upper-class notions. The film goes to great lengths in order to depict the social hierarchy, which is often illustrated through a person's family history. Becky's awareness of the aristocratic rules is considerable, as she displays social dexterity when she maneuvers the dangers grounds of the upper class.
Vanity Fair opens with a scene where the Marquess of Steyne (Gabriel Byrne) walks through a dirty neighborhood in order to get to Becky's father's studio where he paints. Marquess of Steyne's intention is to obtain a painting that he had ordered, for the meager sum of four Guinness. Becky, who is just a child at this time, says ten Guinness, as it is a painting of her late mother and she has a strong emotional connection to the painting. Ten Guinness is given to her, which leaves her staring at Marquess of Steyne walking out with the painting. This moment seems to be a crucial part of the film, as it seems to be the source for Becky's ambition to climb in the social hierarchy and become a part of the rich and known.
The story follows Becky's precise choices and steps throughout her attempt to advance in society. First she tries to sway her friend Amelia Sedley's (Romola Garai) brother to fall for her, as she sees an opportunity to take her first step upwards. This attempt, however, fails as Amelia's fiancé George Osborne (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) tells her brother that it is not proper to try to marry a woman of Becky's status. Despite Becky's first failure she is not disheartened as she seeks new opportunity in Sir Pitt Crawley (Bob Hoskins) through who she meets Rawdon Crawley (James Purefoy). Through the Crawley's she finds a way to advance in society, as she steps into the family circle uninvited. This brings the audience on a journey where Becky is faced with further opportunity to advance, but is also caused much pain and suffering.
Vanity Fair is shot in bright and vibrant colors, which is often enhanced by the many flamboyant costumes that the characters are wearing. This depicts a strong sense of vanity and arrogance that exists among the aristocrats during the time when the story takes place. The vanity is also enhanced through the mise-en-scene, which provides insights into what seems to be important. For example, there are wads of bills exchanged between men during gambling, extravagant dresses, and rooms with excessive décor and paintings to display wealth. In many aspects, this is what is expected out of a period film, which can be seen in Vatel (2000) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988).
The cinematography is stunning and a pleasure to the eye with its use of colors and camerawork. Nair does a brilliant job in the opening of the film where she uses a peakcock and other symbols for vanity to prompt the audience in the direction of the film. However, the story feels a little too contemporary at times, which does not bring the effect a period film should. In addition, the moral values and lessons of the film seem to dominat through the extensive use of mise-en-scene and what else is within the frame of each shot, which also is purposely done due to the vanity of the society. Nonetheless, Nair offers the audience a good cinematic experience in regards to socioeconomic position in a 19th century society, which is full of insightful notions.
Movie Review: A flawed interpretation but not without some good points.
Summary: 4 Stars
If you read several of the reviews, you soon realize that this film is a very mixed production with some obvious conceptual and interpretation flaws. However in all fairness, there are some very good points that bear mentioning also. I will try to cover the primary weaknesses and strengths of this film.
A primary weakness is that the short 2.5 hour format is too short to cover such a vast amount of time, characters, and interactions. Whereas characters that maintain roughly the same persona over time or who are only seen during certain parts of the story, this is not an issue. However for the character of George Osborne, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, the short format is a disaster. He goes from a complete snob who doesn't even wish to talk with Becky since she is a meer governess, to convincing Jos Sedley to refrain from courting Becky, to becoming engaged to Amelia Sedley, to breaking the engagement for financial gain, to cruel abuse of Amelia, to refusing a rich marriage arranged by his father, to marrying Amelia, to trying to seduce Becky, to dying at Waterloo. No actor could make a sensible performance of this mess. As the main protagonists, Reese Witherspoon and James Purefoy, as Becky Sharp Crawley and Rawdon Crawley, at least appeared to have some character development over time that was comprehensible.
Another weakness is that the film could not decide to be totally sarcastic, cruely funny and bitter as in the novel or to try to engage the audience by sugar coating some of the characters, especially Becky. This leads to a disconnect that indicates that Thackery's original masterpiece was poorly understood by the film makers. The contemporary message that Englands wealth was due to colonial exploitation could have been integrated without going totally over the top. The influence of Indian was too much, reaching the point of absurdity with Becky and the society matrons acting as Hindu dancing women before the King of England. Thus cruel characters such as the Marquess, Lord Steyne, coming across as cardboard 2 dimensional villians instead of the truely pathological evil characters they really are.
Margaret Mitchell must have been influenced by Vanity Fair as she wrote Gone with the WInd. Her translation of Becky Sharp into Scarlett O'Hara is far more insightful and subtle than is this translation of Becky Sharp from masterpiece novel to inconsistent and poorly conceptualized film.
Yet there are strengths. The scene where Rawdon Crawley is called to war against Napoleon and quickly gives a quick assessment of both his small worldly worth and yet his great love for Becky is touching, well-played, and the emotional height of the story.
Eileen Atkins is super as rich Aunt Matilda Pitt. Jim Broadbent is good as Mr. Osborne, the rich merchant. Bob Hoskins, is funny as Rawdon's excentric father. Gabriel Byrne is not given enough time and space to adequatly flesh out the evil boredom and malcontent of Lord Steyne. Reese Witherspoon gives everything she has to make this version of Becky Sharp work. However when the director takes a character like Becky Sharp and tries to reshape them, the vision or consistency is lost, and Witherspoon's Becky never seems to learn. There is only one scene where Witherspoon conveys the tragedy that is Becky Sharp, that being the high pitched scream the Becky calls out to Rawdon as he walks out of her life forever. James Purefoy as Rawdon Crawley is well done, conveying that even though he is penniless and a gambler, none-the-less he is devoted to Becky.
The film is visually beautiful but conceptually shallow and inconsistently executed.
Movie Review: An Entertaining Period Piece, Warts And All!
Summary: 4 Stars
William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" fairly explodes onto the screen in a blaze of flamboyant color, sumptuous period costumes, a gazillion characters, multiple plots, and sardonic wit which impales British society, the class system and the nouveau riche who buy their titles. The infamous Becky Sharp, orphaned daughter of a talented English painter and a French opera singer, has been educated at a school for wealthy and titled young woman. She worked as a servant there. The lessons were a perk. Becky is beautiful, a talented singer and fluent in French. More importantly, she is sharp as a tack! We never know if she was born shrewd and ruthless, or if circumstances made her so, but she is determined to make a place in society for herself - and when Becky is determined, look out!
Set in England during the last stage of the Napoleonic Wars, Director Mira Nair and writers Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes take their characters from the bucolic English countryside to the decaying estate of a noble family, from cosmopolitan London ballrooms and drawing rooms to the Battle of Waterloo, and finally to exotic India, where, in fact, Mr. Thackeray was born. His father worked for the East Indian Company and the influence of the subcontinent is evident in this particular film, lending energy and freshness to what could have been just another staid version of the novel.
Like the book, the movie juxtaposes the lives of two young women, Becky, (Reese Witherspoon) and her best friend from school, Amelia Sedley, (Romola Garai). Becky who begins with little but the clothes on her back, and a position as governess, seems to always land on her feet. She is a social climber and a schemer, but nevertheless she is always a sympathetic character, as she tries to get ahead in the world. One character says of Becky, ""I thought she was a social climber, but she's a mountaineer." The kindly, caring Amelia, who starts out in life as a wealthy, well-positioned young lady, never quite makes it, however. See what happens to nice girls!
The cast of characters is superb. Reese Witherspoon plays a spunky, feisty Becky, and is a more sympathetic person than Thackeray's young woman of the same name. The vulgar Sir Pitt Crawley, (Bob Hoskins), a smarmy aristocrat who hires our protagonist as governess, makes one's skin crawl, appropriately. Rawdon Crawley, (James Purefoy), the elegant gambler and soldier, is Sir Pitt's second son. When he marries Becky secretly, much misfortune ensues, of the disinheritance kind. The callow George Osborne, (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is the love of Amelia's life, and Rhys Ifans plays William Dobbin, who is willing to sacrifice his happiness for Amelia's. Gabriel Byrne is the Marquess of Steyne, connoisseur of find art and of the married Rebecca. The rest of the cast is wonderful but too numerous to mention here.
The film moves along at a good pace until, shortly after the halfway point, early 19th century England collides with 21st century Las Vegas in a bizarre Bollywood-like musical number too comical for words. For me the ambiance was shattered. Everything is downhill from here and what begins as a taut satirical drama ends in a sloppy, rushed fashion. What could they have been thinking? Still, I think the film merits 4 stars...just because I enjoyed it so much, warts and all.
JANA
Movie Review: A Period Drama with Color and Pluck.
Summary: 4 Stars
"Vanity Fair" is a contemporary adaptation of William Makepeace Thackerays's novel, directed by Mira Nair, who brings rich colors and lush textures of her native India to the film, as trade with far-flung colonies did to the British society of the early 19th century. The story's heroine is Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon), a penniless but ambitious young woman of the 1810's who aspires to marry well and climb England's social ladder. The first thing she does upon leaving school is attempt to cajole her best friend Amelia's (Romola Garai) brother into marriage. When that fails, Becky is delighted to gain the favor of her employer's wealthy sister, whom she accompanies to London. Becky is shown the door, however, when she marries the woman's roguish nephew, Captain Rawdon Crawley (James Purefoy), a gambler and kindred spirit. But Britain is on the brink of war, and Captain Crawley and Amelia's inattentive husband George (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) are off to battle Napoleon's advancing army, leaving their wives in financial peril, a situation that always threatens to foil Becky's best efforts at social advancement.
Director Mira Nair's emphasis on the Indian imports that met with some fascination in 19th century England give "Vanity Fair" a richer visual style than one might expect from a period film about a corseted social climber, which is a welcome change from the period's usual drab tones. Becky Sharp is such a self-centered character that she isn't likable. But she has no advantage in the world but her own wits, so she cannot be blamed for using them to her benefit. Reese Witherspoon's interpretation balances the character's fundamental selfishness and misfortune. If Becky were simply a victim, she might be more sympathetic, but she would be weak and uninteresting. Instead, she is a strong character who tries to master her own fate, if sometimes by distasteful means. The film's impressive supporting cast includes Jim Broadbent, Eileen Atkins, Gabriel Byrne, and Bob Hoskins. "Vanity Fair" is a little long, and it may only appeal to those who normally enjoy "period" films. But Becky's determination and pluck, along with the film's vibrant hues give "Vanity Fair" more spice than the typical costume drama.
The DVD: Bonus features include 2 featurettes, 8 deleted and extended scenes (including an alternate ending), and an audio commentary by director Mira Nair. "Welcome to Vanity Fair" (11 minutes) talks about interpreting the story for a modern audience, the culture in which it takes place, and includes interviews with Mira Nair, producer Donna Gigliotti, scriptwriter Julian Fellowes, and members of the film's cast. "The Women Behind Vanity Fair" (9 minutes) includes interviews with Nair, Reese Witherspoon, and the film's 3 female producers in which they discuss the character of Becky Sharp and comment on working with a mostly female creative team. Mira Nair provides a good, detailed audio commentary that addresses many aspects of the story and filming. She talks about Thackeray's novel, the cast, the work of the film's various creative teams, directorial decisions, and "Vanity Fair"'s themes. Subtitles are available for the film in Spanish and French. Captioning is available in English. Dubbing is available in French.
Movie Review: Great Entertainment for the "fresh" viewer
Summary: 4 Stars
As I was totally unfamiliar with the original Vanity Fair story and did not read any reviews beforehand, my viewing experience of this movie was totally fresh. I admit I was even quite surprised at some of the twists and turns of the plot. Those of you who did not see the movie yet, beware; I have detailed several scenes below.
What made the viewing interesting was first of all the story itself, which is intriguing and develops in a different way then I expected. A good example would be the first appearance of Lord Stein, who comes to buy a picture from Becky's father, the painter. He is so grand and impressive you know he will return again but I somehow expected him to be the sort of a "savior" and not the person who will toy with Becky and bring to her doom. Another example is Becky and Rodon's marriage which quite surprised me (and his aunt as well...) as I was under the impression he is a sort of playboy, which will only break her heart. Rodon turns out not to be that sort of person at all (at least not where women are concerned). These are just two examples of what kept me so immersed in the plot. Above all hanged the ultimate question - will she succeed? The ending was also quite surprising and even a little awkward, I might add (is this a tragedy or not? The colorful ending makes it quite unclear). The second reason for my enjoyment is Reese Whiterspoon. Whiterspoon manages to be sweet and vulnerable and at the same time cunning and annoying (the scene of Becky and Rodon's separation from their son, on his way to Boarding school is a perfect example. The whole situation is so upsetting and the viewer becomes very angry with Becky , and yet by the end of the scene, with her hand on the glass, she manages to win our heart again). After reading about the original story I now understand that the original Becky should have been a lot more cunning and deceitful then actually pictured on screen, so this might be a certain flaw of the movie. The last reason is the beautiful period and scenery reconstruction: the characters, the clothes, the houses, the weather, the Indian touches - all so beautiful and so appropriate to the way the plot is presented.
What made this movie a fuller experience for me was watching the movie again with the commentary of Mira Nair. The director talks very seriously (no in-between jokes of the kind I met in other commentaries) and gives a very thorough lecture of many different dimensions of this lovely movie. Nair talks especially of her efforts to translate the words of Thackeray to the screen . She gives detailed explanations of her camera usage and detailed visual ideas and symbols you could never think about while watching the movie but indeed they work upon you and give you the certain effect she wanted to achieve. Nair talks about her reasons to delete or add scenes that were not in the original story. She elaborates on issues that will never be clear to people who are unfamiliar with the story or with filmmaking.