Far From The Madding Crowd

Seen at the Roxy Cinema in Nowra, NSW

Cecil says: I read this book for English 'O' Level some 40 years ago, so I have to say I forgot the plot and have no idea how closely this film version of Thomas Hardy's novel stays to the original text.

But I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Carey Mulligan was excellent in the role of Bathsheba, though I couldn't help feeling her portrayal was a bit too modern and her accent surely a little too Received Pronunciation even for a middle class girl if she lived down in Dorset.

Mulligan is an actress I am enjoying more and more since she first broke into the big time with An Education. She's become a great character actress and this role was ideal for her. Interestingly, both Bea and I noticed her profile, which for some reason was filmed almost as much as her face, though some would argue it is her most beautiful aspect.

Michael Sheen was also brilliant as Boldwood. Some of his mannerisms and the way he speaks reminds me increasingly of Anthony Hopkins, and in a sense this is the kind of role that would have suited Hopkins perfectly some 30 years ago.

As always with Hardy, this was a heart-rending tale of love spurned and lovelorn characters; of fortunes made and lost, sometimes through inheritance and sometimes through misdeeds like gambling or plain bad luck, as with a flock of sheep going over a cliff.

I can't help wondering if the move through the social classes was really quite as fluid as this storyline makes out, though I can imagine that farming in those days was very vulnerable to the physical dangers and the weather events that came up in this film.

Interesting also to see all the work going on in the fields without machinery. This was set in 1870, before the mechanical engine was invented. Funnily enough, we saw very similar farming scenes when travelling through Romania and Vietnam in 2014!

One final note of pedantry: shame they had to begin the film with the words 'Dorset, England'. I know Americans like to be sure it's not some county in some mid-west state, but really. Was that necessary? And why then also add '200 miles outside London'. Hardy would not have approved, I'm sure.

****

Bea says:  Hardy is one of my favourite authors, but like Cecil I read this one many, many years ago so my hazy memory of it wasn't at risk from a bad adaptation - although I plan to read it now to see how true to the novel they were.

What more can I add to Cecil's thoughts?  It was well acted and obviously well directed from that, beautifully filmed and costumed, all the things I love about historical drama.  I became nostalgic for my adopted country of England while watching the Christmas scenes in church, and also nostalgic for a time long gone (that I have never known), a time when people sang folk songs around a harvest feast table...

But this is Hardy, so no twee nostalgia-fest for us viewers.  The darker themes of love lost, bad timing, grave life choices poorly made, crime, and of the plight of women in Victorian times (owned by men, no rights to property, ruined if they engaged in pre-marital sex or conceived a child out of wedlock) were as usual the backbone of the story, and although this one ended well, they don't always.  I am always amazed by how well Hardy portrays the issues of women in his novels.

Cary Mulligan was very good indeed as the lead, although she looked rather slight (and often very lightly dressed) to be hauling hay and dipping sheep on a Dorset farm - I also want to re-read the novel to see what kind of description Hardy gives her.  Her acting skills quickly made me forget my initial doubts.  I am rather glad the movie world has moved on from casting Keira Knightly in all these roles.

A perfect Sunday morning film.
****