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| A romantically swooning poster for Thomas Vinterberg's Far from the Madding Crowd |
Far from the Madding Crowd is the fourth adaptation of Thomas Hardy's (Jude the Obscure (1895)) 1874 novel of the same name. It is written by David Nicholls (Great Expectations (2012)) and directed by Danish master filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration/Festen (1998)).
Bathsheba is an attractive, eligible woman in 1870s England, where she inherits a farm and throws herself eagerly into attending it. She becomes courted by three very different men and has trouble finding the right one.
The film has a fine cast led by the enchanting Carey Mulligan (An Education (2009)) and Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead (2011)). Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon (2008)) is great in the film's most touching part as Mr. Boldwood, and Tom Sturridge (On the Road (2012)) makes a strong characterization of the loutish soldier.
There are neat costumes (by Janet Patterson (The Piano (1993))) and lovely countryside locales. - The film is shot on location in the part of England, where the story is actually set.
The details:
Far from the Madding Crowd is, in Vinterberg's hands here, a melodrama that has replaced, in its audiences, the heartache that usually accompanies the genre with knuckle-clenching frustration. This stems from Mulligan's character, SPOILER who has the answer to all of her problems literally right in front of her from the first shots of the film onwards, but simply can't seem to wrap her head around to seeing him. This is fatally annoying for the film, which also seems to drag out, though its story is mostly pretty predictable.
Fine performances, production values and respectability doesn't make a great film, if it feels as long as Far from the Madding Crowd, essentially because it spends its nearly two hours running time before it gives us what we want.
It is solid and meticulously made, but not exactly artistic. It does not become the film to break Vinterberg's not too formidable history of English-language movies (It's All About Love (2003) and Dear Wendy (2004) precedes it) that have not yet been good per se. He is soon releasing his second film this year, the Danish-language The Collective/Kollektivet (2015).
Related review:
Thomas Vinterberg: The Hunt/Jagten (2012) - Vinterberg's strongest film since 1998 is a reversed Celebration
Dear Wendy (2004) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed mega-flop
Watch the trailer here, - with the song Let No Man Steal Thy Thyme sung by Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 18.5 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertainty
[Without the film's budget released, it is impossible to know if Far from the Madding Crowd is close to breaking even yet. - But I think it has far to go yet, and probably will end up a minor flop. It has made 8.3 mil. $ (45 % of the total gross) in North America and a handsome 7.3 mil. $ in the UK (39 %).]
What do you think of Far from the Madding Crowd?
How does it compare to the novel and the earlier screen versions, if you have read or seen any of these?
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