Ralph's Movie Reviews: VANITY FAIR

Tuesday, September 7, 2004

VANITY FAIR

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Reese Witherspoon: Rebecca (Becky) Sharp, notorious social climber
Romolai Garai: Amelia Sedly, Becky’s former schoolmate and now best friend
Jonathan Rhys Meyers: George Osborne, handsome but elusive soldier
James Purefoy: Rawdon Crawley, dashing soldier and gambling man
Eileen Atkins: Miss Matilda, Rawdon’s wealthy spinster aunt

REVIEW
Adapted from a novel, it would be a lot easier to sort things out if you’ve read the book. There is a lot to take in: there are about a dozen principal characters, it covers at least 20 years of their lives and bounces around from England to India to France and back. It takes some figuring out to keep track of all this. And for more than 2 hours too.

Set during the Napoleonic era with lavish costumes, elaborate sets and some really good acting, the story is one about humble beginnings and the difficulty in reaching upper society. But it would be a much better movie if it only took in some of the story.

CLASSIFICATION

for some sensuality, partial nudity and a brief violent image.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.