Brideshead Revisited (12A)
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MOST of us already know Brideshead Revisited thanks to the top 80s TV series (wannabe artist falls in love with rich gay bloke at Oxford and his sister, in case you missed it).
But serial costume drama scribbler Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House, That One With The Lesbians) has had a pop at boiling the story down into a film.
And most of it is damn fine work. It looks great.
The young cast are fantastic- particularly Ben Whishaw as The Only Gay In The College, Sebastian Flyte.
Matthew Goode and Hayley Atwell also impress as Charles Ryder (the artist) and Seb's sister Julia (the girl he wants to be Ryding). And there's able support from period drama staples Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon.
So why two stars? Simple. The lengthy story has been squeezed down to film length so ineptly that you never get to enjoy any of it.
It's 11 hours of small-screen drama bitten off, chewed up and spat back out again into a two-hour movie. Brideshead Regurgitated, in other words.
And the bizarre result is a film that feels way too short AND way too long.
It pains me to give a classy production like this two stars. But the bottom line is, in its current form it just doesn't work. Pity they didn't just do a new TV series instead. Still-it's the best two-star film you'll see all year.
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