As a long-time custom for Hollywood filmmakers, the remaking of a well-loved and highly praised novel into a film is nothing new. The outcome of this reformatting, however, can be variable. Unfortunately, some Hollywood remakes distort the beloved themes, motifs and characters that make a book so endearing, playing up romance, drama or mystery to draw in various demographics. So sums up director Julian Jarrold’s version of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited — a stunning, luscious picture, a dramatic, thought-provoking plotline, but imbued with more lust and love than the original novel.
The film stars Matthew Goode, the lanky, dark-haired brother-in-law from Woody Allen’s 2005 Match Point. Here, Goode’s smoldering sensuality is highlighted as Charles Ryder in an intense homoerotic friendship with the charming, yet mysterious, nattily dressed Lord Sebastian Flyte (played by the almost dangerously skinny Ben Whishaw of British theater fame). They meet at Oxford in the 1930s, which is portrayed in lush cinematic grandeur — the elegant architecture, the 20th century love for knowledge and the stark moral difference between solemn schoolboys and worldly, rich aristocrats — the worlds on which Charles stands at the brink.
Through an accident (or fate, whatever you want to call it), Charles and Sebastian meet and their lives are immediately intertwined. Enter the Brideshead estate, the beautifully decadent home of Sebastian’s family — a family that (cue dramatic music) Sebastian does not want Charles to become involved in.
Unfortunately for Sebastian, who wanted to keep his special friend Charles away from Brideshead, Charles cannot be kept from meeting his family — mother and family dictator Lady Marchmain (a wonderfully cast Emma Thompson), father Lord Marchmain (Matthew Gambon) and, most importantly, sister Julia, played by the up-and-coming Hayley Atwell. Spending a luxurious summer with the Flytes, Charles is drawn into the stark religious fury that is Brideshead.
The film does attempt to capture the book’s central theme — Charles, the atheist, must grapple with his forbidden love for both Sebastian and Julia — forbidden because of the strict Catholic faith their fanatical mother bestowed upon them; however, the Hollywood version of a literary classic fails to completely envelop the angst and the guilt this religious difference entails.
Through vacations in Venice, drunken schooldays and lazy swims in Brideshead’s fountain, Charles and Sebastian share a friendship so erotic it screams homosexual. Bring Julia into the picture, and you can just see the lust in Charles’ face. When Charles and Julia do explore their shared passion, the guilt every good Catholic lives under quashes any future hope for shared happiness.
The novel is complex, rich and explores the religious guilt that is emphasized through these relationships. The film, while touching the surface of these themes, fails to delve into the humanistic aspects that come with grappling with faith. That’s where Hollywood comes in.
The Hollywood-ization of the novel played up the love story and put a dimmer on the religious fervor. Atwell and Goode were the stars, while Thompson’s character was reduced to cinders. The film was well-done and brought back images of a decadent England that stood at odds with an overwhelming sense of Catholic guilt. Unfortunately, it was only images, with little literary substance left.
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