TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

johnbridger Quite what the producers of this appalling adaptation were trying to do is impossible to fathom.A group of top quality actors, in the main well cast (with a couple of notable exceptions), who give pretty good performances. Penelope Keith is perfect as Aunt Louise and equally good is Joanna Lumley as Diana. All do well with the scripts they were given.So much for the good. The average would include the sets. Nancherrow is nothing like the house described in the book, although bizarrely the house they use for the Dower House looks remarkably like it. It is clear then that the Dower House is far too big. In the later parts, the writers decided to bring the entire story back to the UK, presumably to save money, although with a little imagination I have no doubt they could have recreated Ceylon.Now to the bad. The screenplay. This is such an appallingly bad adaptation is hard to find words to condemn it. Edward does not die in the battle of Britain but survives, blinded. He makes a brief appearance then commits suicide - why?? Loveday has changed from the young woman totally in love with Gus to a sensible farmer's wife who can give up the love her life with barely a tear (less emotional than Brief Encounter). Gus, a man besotted and passionately in love, is prepared to give up his love without complaint. Walter (Mudge in the book) turns from a shallow unfaithful husband to a devoted family man. Jess is made into a psychologically disturbed young woman who won't speak. Aunt Biddy still has a drink problem but now without any justification. The Dower House is occupied by the army for no obvious reason other than a very short scene with Jess who has a fear of armed soldiers. Whilst Miss Mortimer's breasts are utterly delightful, I could not see how their display on several occasions moved the plot forward. The delightfully named Nettlebed becomes the mundane Dobson. The word limit prevents me from continuing the list.There is a sequel (which I lost all interest in watching after this nonsense) and I wonder if the changes were made to create the follow on story. It is difficult to image that Rosamunde Pilcher would have approved this grotesque perversion of her book; presumably she lost her control when the rights were purchased.

trpdean I quite disliked this for some time - it struck me as a soap opera not meant for the likes of this 50 year old male lawyer -- but it grew on me as the series went on.Are there stereotyped characters? You bet. Is there as great a reverence for a grand home as you'll ever see outside Scarlett O'Hara's Tara? Yup.But the acting nevertheless raises the level of this - and because of them, the characters' tragedies and their loves -- the sort of thing that many grand families did indeed go through in the Second World War -- do move us.The story is of two girls who become friends at boarding school in 1937 and their lives from that time to 1947. One of the two is a sweet rather naive middle to upper middle class girl, the older of two sisters, whose family lives in Singapore (father's an executive with a shipping company). The other friend is a deliberately anti-conventional youngest of three children of a grand family from Cornwall.With only two aunts and an uncle still in England (one of whom dies her first year at school and the other pair posted to Gibraltar within six months of her beginning school) the sweet girl (played by now superstar Keira Knightley and as an older girl played by the fine actress Emily Mortimer) is more or less made part of the grand family by her friend.From that point and throughout the War, this romantic tale is of separations, mistaken loves, deaths, love affairs. The end of the War brings both mystery and sadness about the sweet girl's family in Singapore.As head of that grand family, Peter O'Toole is (characteristically) mysterious -- and Joanna Lumley playing his much younger wife, does a very nice job of making us care. All concerned - particularly including Peter Batty as the only son of the grand family - are quite effective.The acting, as well as the fine costumes, sets, props, lift this above the category of mere soap opera that I originally thought it to be.Incidentally, ignore eye's comments below -- he wrongly describes much of the plot!

tommott A 4-hour romance novel set in Britain before during and after WWII. The heroine falls into a fortune near the beginning and nothing much worse happens to her after that. I hoped for a couple more plot twists, but even so, it has its charms, and I looked forward to finishing all 4 episodes. Good acting. Fair-Poor direction. Horrible soundtrack reminiscent of an oatmeal commercial.American viewers will be surprised (well, I was) by the partial female nudity that pops up every hour or so just as interest starts to flag.

eye3 Okay, you have:Penelope Keith as Miss Herringbone-Tweed, B.B.E. (Backbone of England.) She's killed off in the first scene - that's right, folks; this show has no backbone!Peter O'Toole as Ol' Colonel Cricket from The First War and now the emblazered Lord of the Manor.Joanna Lumley as the ensweatered Lady of the Manor, 20 years younger than the colonel and 20 years past her own prime but still glamourous (Brit spelling, not mine) enough to have a toy-boy on the side. It's alright, they have Col. Cricket's full knowledge and consent (they guy even comes 'round for Christmas!) Still, she's considerate of the colonel enough to have said toy-boy her own age (what a gal!)David McCallum as said toy-boy, equally as pointlessly glamourous as his squeeze. Pilcher couldn't come up with any cover for him within the story, so she gave him a hush-hush job at the Circus.and finally:Susan Hampshire as Miss Polonia Teacups, Venerable Headmistress of the Venerable Girls' Boarding-School, serving tea in her office with a dash of deep, poignant advice for life in the outside world just before graduation. Her best bit of advice: "I've only been to Nancherrow (the local Stately Home of England) once. I thought it was very beautiful but, somehow, not part of the real world." Well, we can't say they didn't warn us.Ah, Susan - time was, your character would have been running the whole show. They don't write 'em like that any more. Our loss, not yours.So - with a cast and setting like this, you have the re-makings of "Brideshead Revisited," right?Wrong! They took these 1-dimensional supporting roles because they paid so well. After all, acting is one of the oldest temp-jobs there is (YOU name another!)First warning sign: lots and lots of backlighting. They get around it by shooting outdoors - "hey, it's just the sunlight!"Second warning sign: Leading Lady cries a lot. When not crying, her eyes are moist. That's the law of romance novels: Leading Lady is "dewy-eyed."Henceforth, Leading Lady shall be known as L.L.Third warning sign: L.L. actually has stars in her eyes when she's in love. Still, I'll give Emily Mortimer an award just for having to act with that spotlight in her eyes (I wonder . did they use contacts?)And lastly, fourth warning sign: no on-screen female character is "Mrs." She's either "Miss" or "Lady."When all was said and done, I still couldn't tell you who was pursuing whom and why. I couldn't even tell you what was said and done.To sum up: they all live through World War II without anything happening to them at all.OK, at the end, L.L. finds she's lost her parents to the Japanese prison camps and baby sis comes home catatonic. Meanwhile (there's always a "meanwhile,") some young guy L.L. had a crush on (when, I don't know) comes home from some wartime tough spot and is found living on the street by Lady of the Manor (must be some street if SHE's going to find him there.) Both war casualties are whisked away to recover at Nancherrow (SOMEBODY has to be "whisked away" SOMEWHERE in these romance stories!)Great drama.