This rewatch was purely because I wanted more Matthew Goode after watching his brilliant performance in Stoker and it was this or a RomCom.

I stand by my initial rating. This looks good, has good performances, but really I find the story dull and the characters unsympathetic.

Also was struck by the sudden realisation that Perks of Being a Wallflower is an update of this (not sure if it is officially as I haven't seen the comparison anywhere yet, but come on - how blatant are the parallels?)

This rewatch was purely because I wanted more Matthew Goode after watching his brilliant performance in Stoker and it was this or a RomCom.

I stand by my initial rating. This looks good, has good performances, but really I find the story dull and the characters unsympathetic.

Also was struck by the sudden realisation that Perks of Being a Wallflower is an update of this (not sure if it is officially as I haven't seen the comparison anywhere yet, but come on - how blatant are the parallels?)

Not as good as the BBC original, but still good.

I feel I should start this review with the disclaimer that I have neither read the book nor seen the TV series from the 1980s. I am therefore reviewing this film on its own merits and not taking into account the source material.

It's an average period drama. The story of Charles Ryder and his complicated relationship with the Flyte family. The cast is fantastic, and I really think this is what carries the film. The plot is rushed and a bit jumbled; it felt like we missed a critical event as we jumped from a 10 year flashback forward 4 years.

At the point when two of the central characters, who have so much influence on the relationships and actions of others, effectively disappear the story became nothing more than a question of whether the guy would get the girl and I'm afraid my attention was lost.

Beautiful movie. Some plot changes from book, but I think it works well.

Let's throw out plot and coherency because we have no time for proper character development or adherence to source text.

"Only go to see the film if you haven't read the book, and if you don't remember the TV series, because then you won't have to compare this beautiful film with them. The film may look lovely, but leaves so much out; there isn't enough time to fit the whole book into 2 and a bit hours and so the plot and characterisation suffer greatly."

very diapoining remake

It says a lot about a movie when it took me about 30 minutes into it until I realized I had seen it before, especially since I must have seen it in the last 4 years. For the life of me I cannot remember when or where however, but at the end of the movie I understood why I had chosen to forget it so completely. The original story is very good which is why it is hard to forgive this unnecessary adaptation. It has nothing new to add and is, in short, quite bad.

I wouldn't want to leave a drunken Ben Whishaw either.