Vanity Fair
Matinee with Snacks
In preparation for this film, a Georgian period novel which I had not
read, I slogged through the miserable experience of reading William
Makepeace Thackeray's novel on which this film is based. My only
terror, after seeing this delightful, vibrant, and exciting movie, is
that someone will be inspired to read the book after seeing director
Mira "Monsoon Wedding" Nair's and screenwriters Matthew Faulk's and
Julian Fellowes' fantastic and beautiful adaptation of a book
otherwise better forgotten.
A whole essay or thesis could be written on why this book fails its
genre - but then I think about the spate of chick-lit books which are
really modern renditions of this form. Chock full of period-only
references and colloquialisms that probably went out of fashion in
only 10 years, never mind 200, Vanity Fair is just like any
pastel-covered treatise on the romantic trials of the Manolo'ed
smoking fashion editors of today. To its credit, Vanity Fair
introduces the scrabbling, desperate cleverness of Scarlett O'Hara a
few decades early. Enter Reese Witherspoon, comely poster child for
the determined, smart scrappers of all eras, as Becky Sharp, the
ostensible anti-heroine of Vanity Fair who social climbs her way into
notoriety and affects everyone around her, for good and for bad.
She's actually far more sympathetic on screen than she is in the
novel, just like Ms. O'Hara.
Nair, Faulk, and Fellowes make better use of visuals to explain the
complex social norms that made Sharp's past and present so
scandalous. In a room of identically gowned, vapid snobs,
Witherspoon blazes bravely in, clad in decadent red, despite all
common knowledge, and rules the room again. Vanity Fair the film is
informed by Nair's unique understanding of the Indian caste system,
and the beautiful aesthetic of her native land. Textures and colors
and feathers and glittery ornaments entrance the eye while clearly
designating character in a way the text neglects to clarify. This
brings new life to a book where beige and slightly less beige are
contrasted as sheer scandal in difference.
Witherspoon herself owns this part and rolls around in it like a
lottery winner in dollar bills on a bed. Even concealing her 5
months worth of pregnancy, she is quick and fit and bursting with
life and energy. The rest of the casting is simply perfect - if
anything it gives away a little too much character too soon, in the
case of (Rhys-davies?) as George Osborne. Rhys Ifans gets the meaty
role of Dobbin and eliminates Notting Hill's Spike from our minds
once and for all. Everyone is perfect, perfect. Makepeace
Thackeray's book is heavy with class-specific dialogue and again,
screenwriter XXXX turns the period slang into character tics that are
tangible to us modern audiences. It's a real feat to see. The
writers also slice up the film perfectly and to its essence while
adding new elements that make this film truly its own work of art.
Another brilliant Focus Features entry. Honestly, is there nothing
they can't do?
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to
forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can
check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the
Online Film Critics Society
http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock
Exchange Brokerage Resource
========== X-RAMR-ID: 38599 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1317961 X-RT-TitleID: 1135805 X-RT-SourceID: 755 X-RT-AuthorID: 3661 X-RT-RatingText: 4.5/5
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews