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Danish director Thomas Vinterberg brings
nothing new to his adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Far from the Madding
Crowd", even going so far as to trim the novel into a bite-sized two
hours. Whatever Schlesinger's longer version lacked it now feels like a
masterpiece in comparison. Of course, it's not an easy book to bring to
the screen, the main problem lying in the casting. Bathsheba Everdene is
an almost impossible character to get 'right'. On the one hand she is
forward-thinking and independent, a heroine ahead of her time, while on
the other, she allows herself to be romantically manipulated and is very
much the agent of her own misfortunes. Julie Christie got the
independent free spirit bit off to a tee and almost carried off the love
lorn element but Carey Mulligan is simply miscast; she's much too 21st
century to be convincing and in this shortened version she vacillates
way too much. I was never convinced by her behaviour any more than I
could understand Matthias Schoenaerts' puppy-dog devotion to this
fickle woman.
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Schoenaerts doesn't go for getting the accent right
and plays the role as a dreamily attractive hunk who never takes his
shirt off or says very much. Slightly more successful are Tom
Sturridge's Sergeant Troy, though he lacks the brooding sexuality
Terence Stamp brought to the role and Michael Sheen is quite affecting
as Boldwood, even if, again, he is no Peter Finch. Indeed this version
is so sanitised and so cosily romantic it could have been made in the
1940's. It isn't bad, exactly but it feels very much like something the
BBC might have produced on television.
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