Scene for scene, there's some beautiful writing here, but the overall exposition is obscure, and becomes more so as the story progresses; the significance and relationships of some of the secondary characters remained murky to me throughout, as did the workings of the ruling class and the military command structure of the time.
The mood also seemed to fluctuate. The first episode was brilliant, funny, sometimes breathtaking; after that, the story just seemed to become cluttered with weak subplots, while the motivations of our hero and his wife seemed either implausible or simply uninteresting; as the story progressed, these characters became less fascinating to me, not more. Only the suffragette Valentine Wannop retained my interest and sympathy.
I think it's very hard for filmmakers to capture the "tone" of these poignant/satirical British novels of the first half of the 20th century. Charles Sturridge seemed to pull it off with "A Handful for Dust," but not with "Where Angels Fear to Tread." Merchant and Ivory managed it with "A Room With a View." This production succeeds in fits and starts, but by the closing credits I was left unsatisfied and glad to be done with it.
The mood also seemed to fluctuate. The first episode was brilliant, funny, sometimes breathtaking; after that, the story just seemed to become cluttered with weak subplots, while the motivations of our hero and his wife seemed either implausible or simply uninteresting; as the story progressed, these characters became less fascinating to me, not more. Only the suffragette Valentine Wannop retained my interest and sympathy.
I think it's very hard for filmmakers to capture the "tone" of these poignant/satirical British novels of the first half of the 20th century. Charles Sturridge seemed to pull it off with "A Handful for Dust," but not with "Where Angels Fear to Tread." Merchant and Ivory managed it with "A Room With a View." This production succeeds in fits and starts, but by the closing credits I was left unsatisfied and glad to be done with it.