BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

Putting a classic on a too-tall pedestal

By HARRY VAUGHN

del.ico.us | digg it! | reddit!

print | email | 0 Comments

Director Julian Jarrold's cinematic adaptation of Evelen Waugh's 1945 novel is equivalent to a reasonably well-worded summary one might find on SparkNotes. It accurately establishes its characters, examines the recurring themes of romance and religion, and offers an occasional whisper of substance beneath its dry and impartial surface. If anything, Jarrold's self-conscious re-enactment of Brideshead should send viewers racing to the bookstore once again, eager to indulge in "the secret and profane memories of Captain Charles Ryder" rather than viewing the whole affair from a slick and impenetrable viewpoint.

Set primarily in England during the '30s, the film focuses almost entirely on the decadent relationship between the Oxford-bound Charles (Matthew Goode), and the aristocratic siblings Sebastian (Ben Wishaw) and Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell), both self-absorbed brats domineered by their hyper-Catholic mother, Lady Marchmain (a typically excellent Emma Thompson). The Flyte family frequently resides at Brideshead, an enormous country estate where servants scramble in hallways lined with marble statues. Brideshead is where Sebastian, in a most dramatic telegram, insists Charles spend an entire summer with him.

Much controversy and debate has always circled around the homoerotic undertones of 'Charles and Sebastian's friendship, which blossoms during their time drinking and frolicking at Brideshead. However, in this film, such undertones are tossed aside in favor of blatant exposition. Sebastian is made to be a flamboyant homosexual, while Charles appears so straight and so disengaged from Sebastian's affections, one has to wonder why the two are good friends at all.

The cookie-cutter manner in which their friendship is portrayed is telling of Jarrold's direction as a whole. It isn't that Brideshead is necessarily a bad film, but its earnest, straightforward sincerity works poorly with the purposeful ambiguity of Waugh's prose. Everything is taken very seriously, whether it's Lady Marchmain's Catholicism or Charles and Julia's eventual romance, but only occasionally does this new adaptation seem to know where it is going and what it needs to be doing. It's saving confidence lies in the fact that Charles loves the two siblings and hates Marchmain's religious beliefs.

Fair enough ... but why?

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

RATED | PG-13

NOW SHOWING | COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, KENDALL SQ. CINEMA, CIRCLE CINEMAS, AMC LOEWS BOSTON COMMON