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Rating:  - terrific adaptation!
This is a terrific adaptation of Thackeray's cynical novel, Vanity Fair, with the infamous beautiful, manipulative, cruel, social climbing, unscrupulous Becky Sharp as its dominant character, as we are taken through the various strata of English society.
Natasha Little plays Becky Sharp. And, she is Becky Sharp. She gives, in my opinion, a definitive performance. For just one example, her whole demeanor, when re-encountering Lord Steyne, is simply superb, conveying Sharp's multitude of emotions, thoughts, feelings including humiliation, opportunism, hope, fear. And all the time her wheels so madly spinning. A tour-de-force performance by Little.
The other actors are also outstanding. My only complaint is that for some reason the very ending is soft pedaled. Why, I can't imagine given the otherwise faithful adaptation.
But even so, you'd be hard pressed to find a better adaptation. Far, far superior to the awful Mira Nair/Reese Witherspoon one.
Rating: - 10 stars. An almost flawless production... every episode!
This is brisk, fun production that doesn't take itself any more seriously than it should, and doesn't mind winking at us with a secret smile at the same time. The story of Becky Sharp, a girl who is never any better than she needs to be, and her friend Amelia who is much too good for her own good.
Natasha Little is simply perfect as Becky. Little is the kind of woman that women find hard to like: delicately beautiful, exceptionally talented - making her perfect to play Becky. It is the subtle nuances in her moments that give her performance great depth and complexity - needed for accessibility for a selfish character who is the smartest person in any room she is in. Becky is a woman who would agree with the quote of another brilliant beauty, Hedy Lamar: "Any woman can be glamourous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid." Little's Beky is not as likable or vulnerable as Reese Witherspoon - who played Becky in a major motion picture film version made right around the same time - but with a miniseries we have time to understand her more. Besides, not many actresses are as likable as Witherspoon.
As the story begins, this production does not look lavish, but the casting is so wonderful, the script so strong, the costumes simple but just right, that we are given the ability to focus on getting to know the people we will be following through 6 episodes.
It is this initial simplicity that is the brilliance of the production design by Malcolm Thornton. In the early stages, poverty is cramped and messy; work is dark, cluttered and rotting, and wealth is clean, and bright and airy... like freedom. As we progress throught the story, wealth becomes more complex, overstuffed and overdecorated, echoing the complexity of the lives of Becky and Rawdon. Rawdon played by the handsome and overwhelmingly talented Nathaniel Parker (INSPECTOR LINLEY, BLEAK HOUSE).
Breathtaking Andrew Davies, possibly the most brilliant adapter of the classics of all time, gifts us with a screenplay of grace and subtlety, weaving the ease of modern speech perfectly into the period action in a way that feels classic, but is totally accessible.
It all bounces along to the ohm-pa-pa of a brass band. This band is one of the anachronistic touches of the production. While it passes as a military band, it also has a the raw, slightly under-rehearsed sound of a New Orleans jazz band, and sometimes a 1940s dancehall... meanwhile Becky's musical choices are straight from the pub... to the delight of the men around her. The band is really the only downfall of the production, in the moments of great serious importance, the band hits us over the head with a blaringly repetitive theme that gets very annoying after 6 episodes. It is the only "wrong note" in an otherwise witty and wise score. One of the nice subtle touches is that even Becky's singing, which at first seems flawless and delightful, begins to sound a bit flat in the episodes where we see dark results of her behavior on those around her.
The music for Amelia and William is completely different. Plaintive melodies played as quietly as loyalty and love that things only of the good of the beloved. Philip Glenister as William carries the heart of the piece with affecting restraint. Miriam Margoles does her best work EVER here, and Jeremy Swift as Jos is absolutely delightful in every moment he is on screen!
This entire miniseries is just marvelous, aspects of the production in tune with each other, in service to the whole piece. FANTASTIC.
Rating: - Not precisely the Thackery novel....OK so what?
Lots of different opinions here, lots of love and a some surprising hate. I can only speak for myself and my wife, but we found this DVD riveting. One of the most absorbing BBC productions we've seen. Andrew Davies here seems to be criticized for straying too far from the text, and in other adaptations of not straying far enough. Well, all I can say is that this tale, and this filming, were perfect. Enjoyed the music, which was beautifully composed and appropriately harsh for a very harsh tale, admired the direction, found the characters compelling and believable, and loved the subtle and deft touches throughout in which character was revealed oh so skillfully. An though the acting was impeccable, three actors deserve special accolades. Tim Woodward, a face I had not seen before, is gripping as John Osborne, the conflicted and tormented father who loves and desires and hopes and fears and bullies. Nathaniel Parker, recently seen in Bleak House as a dim-witted and selfish fool, is exquisite, showing us with eyes and mouth the pains, the torments, and the heartbreak of a man who suddenly realizes he has been sucker-punched. The good-hearted, naive, and silly Joseph Sedley, a character it would be all-too-easy to laugh at, is portrayed without malice by a charming Jeremy Swift. Other wonders abound, from the smallest characters up to Becky herself, the toxic blend of a beauty we want to trust and an evil that is all too painfully exposed.
We bought in completely. Compared to the Witherspoon version, far more gorgeous and spectacular, but ultimately lame and vapid, this is astounding. A delight from start to finish. If a novel is filmed, and the result is nearly perfect, even if the original plot was abused, I do not care. Think of David Lean's Great Expectations, related to, but freely adapted from, a sprawling masterpiece, and an absolutely riveting piece of cinema. That was a great film from a glorious book. If the film substantially alters the novel's themes, or pretties up the author's vision, well, that is unpardonable. But no such transformation happens here. To compress 800 pages and a multitude of characters even into 6 hours, well concessions must be made. I cannot help but believe that Thackery would be quite pleased with these choices.
Rating:  - "treacherous little trollop"...
William Makepeace Thackeray's VANITY FAIR is given the grand treatment in this stylish BBC miniseries, set on several continents and against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.
Natasha Little plays Becky Sharp, the ultimate social-climber, determined to rise above her class by any means possible. Employed as governess to the wealthy Crawley family, Becky wastes no time in seducing younger son Rawdon (Nathaniel Parker) and marrying him despite the hefty objections of the fearsome matriarch Miss Crawley (Miriam Margolyes). But when Becky decides to tangle with the influential-yet dangerous Lord Steyne (Gerard Murphy), it may lead to her ultimate ruin...
Providing the effective counterpoint to Becky's quest for money and station is the tale of her best friend Amelia Sedley (Frances Grey). In love with the roguish George Osborne (Tom Ward), but admired from afar by his best friend William Dobbin (Philip Glenister), Amelia is the true heart and soul of Thackeray's story. Of course, the great irony is that Amelia pines after a man who actually never existed (the faithful and true George is actually an uncaring and womanising bore).
Natasha Little is the perfect actress to bring to life Thackeray's anti-heroine, and her portrayal of Becky carries the series nicely. Frances Grey is the picture of innocence as the deceptively-fragile Amelia. As one would expect from a BBC period drama, the supporting cast is very strong and includes Charlotte West-Oram, Michele Dotrice, Jeremy Swift, Janine Duvitski, Patsy Rowlands, David Bradley, Eleanor Bron and Sylvestra Le Touzel (whom BBC fans will remember as Fanny in "Mansfield Park").
Rating:  - Typical silly movie maker fare. Absolutely not "Vanity Fair!"
Becky isn't a romantic character and there isn't a romantic ending. BECKY KILLS JOS IN THE CLOSING PAGES OF THE ACTUAL NOVEL!
Suspend your disbelief for a moment: In the actual novel Becky connives and crushes friends and family on her odyssey to fame and fortune. She abandons her son, bullies her way in and out of society, prostitutes herself, and finally murders Jos. The whole premise of Thackeray's novel is that there are no heroes, no heroines. In fact, there are only two or three characters of good nature and they play small roles. He purposely meant it that way. In every record of interview he confirmed his intention to portray the dark side that lurks within each of us and how lives are affected when those traits are set free.
Here's the trick; when any literary work is 70 years old, all rights of the author, family or publisher are relinquished to the public and media executives, producers and marketing directors know full well that a very small percentage of their audience actually read the classics or even read at all; so they "adapt" the world's masterpieces to appeal to the box office so that the memory of the work is lost to several generations.
That is why movies adapted from modern novels have different titles from the books they are based on, and are qualified with the phrase "based on the novel `such and such.'"
This silly movie is an example of the mockery that movie makers and the media have made of the world's culture, especially our own.
Don't read or buy this silly DVD. Read the book. The book is a wonderful experience and will take a few days for a working person. This DVD will take two hours and will provide the type of empty calories that the world is becoming more and more addicted to.
Do you really think you can manage to adapt a Thackeray novel in five hours? Absolutely not!
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