TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Alasdair Orr Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Ricardo Daly The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Red-125 Doctor Thorne (TV Series 2016) is an adaption of the third of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles. In England, the series was shown in three episodes. In the U.S., on DVD, it was shown as four episodes. Julian Fellowes, who wrote the screenplay, provided commentary on each episode, to expand each episode to an hour in length. The series was directed by Niall MacCormick.Tom Hollander stars as Doctor Thorne, a country doctor who lives in Barchester with his niece, Mary. Mary is played to perfection by the enchanting Stefanie Martini. Harry Richardson portrays Frank Gresham, who is the Romeo to Mary's Juliet. All three are highly skilled actors, and it was a pleasure to watch them at work.However, for me, acting honors go to Rebecca Front as Frank's mother, Lady Arabella Gresham. Squire Gresham, Frank's father, has squandered the family fortune. For Lady Arabella, the only avenue open for the Greshams is for Frank to "marry money." Mary Thorne isn't poor, but she certainly isn't rich. She simply won't do for Frank, and Lady Arabella fights like a mother tiger to "protect" her son. (Of course, she's really protecting herself and the family, but that's a subtle distinction that doesn't slow her down.)Although this isn't a BBC production, it looks like one. It was produced by ITV, a British commercial TV channel. Obviously, ITV knows that viewers expect high production values in a film adapted from a Trollope novel.This series was made for the small screen, so obviously it works well on DVD. The IMDb rating for the series is 7.2. Pretty good, but not good enough. My suggestion is to find it and see it. You won't be disappointed.

marshcorinda We are enjoying the series very much. Unlike Jane Austen characters, these have a more human tone. Their hypocrisy is as modern as what we see in Hollywood or Washington DC. While Mary Thorne may seem to unfairly judge her station in society, for her time, she is on the mark. Illegitimate children in Victorian society were outcasts regardless of their character, intelligence, or beauty. Mary Thorne would have had no chance of marrying "above her station." Being a writer, I can see that this is quite likely to happen, although it could never have happened in reality. Perhaps she is the Wallace Simpson of her time. Let's hope so. This series is lightened by clever humor from time to time, keeping it entertaining while it carries forward a message and keeps us wanting more. I hope this show continues for some time.

ekeby Anthony Trollope's novels have been mined for TV productions for decades, so we shouldn't be surprised that Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes decided to take a crack at one. And he does rather well. Here's hoping he'll serialize Trollope's remaining Barsetshire books.For readers of Trollope's novels (as with Jane Austen's) it can be a bit of a shock to see them somewhat sensationalized and in a necessarily condensed format. But the needs of present day audiences require it. Consequently, though, the result is often a sort of high-brow soap opera and Fellowes' Dr. Thorne is no exception.However, the production is pretty, and the characterization right on point, if a bit over the top. Though for me, Ian McShane breathed life and depth into Trollope's somewhat one-dimensional Mr. Scatcherd. Alison Brie does the same for another Victorian cliché: the American heiress in search of a titled husband. With an ever-present smile, she makes Miss Dunstable's gently spoken directness seem downright raunchy. It's a delight to watch.Why bother saying more. If you like the Downton Abbey genre, you are going to see this and you are going to like it. End of story.

l_rawjalaurence After a slow beginning, during which time the story unfolds in a series of shot/reverse shot sequences accompanied by Ilan Eshkeri's rather obtrusive music, Julian Fellowes's adaptation of a lesser known Trollope novel proves extremely entertaining.This is due in no small part to the eternal conflict between money, power, and love that underpins the plot. Pauper Mary Thorne (Stefanie Martini) loves rich Frank Gresham (Harry Richardson), but their path towards true romance is perpetually blocked by Frank's avaricious mother Lady Arabella (Rebecca Front). Add to the mix a drunken baronet (Ian McShane), and his even more loutish son Louis (Edward Franklin), with designs on Mary, not to mention a slob-like nouveau riche man Mr. Moffatt (Danny Kirrane), and we have the perfect recipe for a series of conflicts between characters of different generations and different socio-economic groups.At the story's heart stands the eponymous Doctor Thorne (Tom Hollander), a basically good-hearted person with a penchant for protecting those less able to defend themselves against unwonted social criticism. Director Niall MacCormick uses the close-up to good effect, showing Thorne's suppressed emotions in the most difficult situations, which only boil over once during a dinner party when Louis unleashes a volley of drunken insults at the entire company.Fellowes's script is not without its humorous elements, especially in the comic opportunities given to Lady Arabella and her equally avaricious sister-in-law the Countess de Courcy (Phoebe Nicholls). Like a pair of aging dowagers they stride through the Gresham family seat, knocking everything and everyone aside in their attempts to break up Mary and Frank's affair. However they get their comeuppance in the end, when Mary's true social status is revealed. The sight of Lady Arabella's henpecked husband Frank (Richard McCabe) laughing fit to burst is one of the adaptation's most memorable moments.Filmed in and around stately piles in Wiltshire, Somerset, and Hertfordshire, DOCTOR THORNE convincingly recreates a world of rigid socio-economic divisions where everyone was supposed to know their place and accept it. The fact that Doctor Thorne refuses to conform to his expected role gives this adaptation its dramatic impetus. It is only a short adaptation - 3 episodes of 48 minutes each - but it is extremely watchable.