FILM REVIEW

"VANITY FAIR"

Entertainment
Art

By NED O'REILLY

Since I’m an actor, I love these historical dramas because they have large casts of mostly terrific performers spouting literate dialogue and spewing emotions left and right. Since I’m a writer, I can’t stand these historical dramas because they’re filled with pompous, idly rich characters and tragic poorer characters suffering eternal injustices. And at the core of the story of Vanity Fair (as with Pride and Prejudice, Gone With The Wind, and dozens of other films based on epic 19th century novels) is somebody or a couple of somebodies who live for decades in misery because they won’t tell someone else their true feelings.

And so it was with a mild mixture of love and hate that I went to see ‘Vanity Fair.’ The good news is that the actors are wonderful throughout, the story compelling enough to keep you interested for most of its two hours and twenty minutes, and the directorial touches unorthodox often enough to make the film memorable. But the nicest surprise is that it’s funny – at least for the first half. Give yourself permission to laugh at these ridiculous Britishers. Nair wants us to think these prunish proper English Matrons and these be-wigged inept noblemen are silly, laughably silly. ‘Vanity Fair’ is based on the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray and has been filmed a number of times – most recently in England as a television mini-series.

The story centers on Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon), an orphaned girl who learns how to speak, behave, and carry herself like a woman of society. Since she doesn’t really know all the rules, we follow her for years as she makes some of the right choices and some very wrong ones in an attempt to earn a life of leisure and prestige. Becky is heroic in that she overcomes obstacles and fights injustices, but she is particularly non-heroic in the methods she often employs to win these battles. Witherspoon’s performance is very good. She gets a lot of mileage out of the extraordinary facial expressions that have become her trademark. She also blends right in with the largely British cast, all the while emanating a Hollywood star quality.

Of the many supporting characters, Bob Hoskins shines as the disheveled sophisticate Sir Pitt Crawley, Becky’s first employer. Hoskins has always shown great range as an actor, but his bad boy grin and overall unkemptness serve the director’s vision of showing us the underbelly of the privileged class quite well. And it’s Hoskins who provides many of the funny moments. His servant Horrocks (Tim Preece) is also a hoot in his terrible wig and befuddled underplay, and his hapless minister son Pitt (Douglas Hodge) provides a number of hilarious double takes and stammers. There is also a seemingly inexhaustible parade of homely English society women who sniff, sneer, and pout through scene after scene to great humorous effect.

Also delightful is Eileen Atkins as Matilda, the Crawley family matriarch. While ordering everyone around, she takes a liking to Becky, steals her away to live in her own, beautiful home, but ultimately rejects her when Becky secretly marries her son Rawdon (James Purefoy). Rawdon is a charmer, but also a gambler and, like so many others in the story, a lazy bum. Purefoy is perfect for the role and by the time he’s faced with debtor’s prison and the breakup of his family, he earns the audience’s sympathy.

Other subplots are too numerous to explain fully, but we get such melodramatic staples as the loyal soldier (Rhys Ifans) in love with the wife (Romola Garai) of his ungrateful friend (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers); that same friend’s combative relationship with his ruthlessly ambitious father (Jim Broadbent); a pre-battle ball in Brussels during which one soldier passes a note of lust to another’s wife while his own wife is vomiting in the plants due to an as-yet unannounced pregnancy; the aftermath of a terrible battle with Napoleon’s forces in which we get to guess which of the soldiers dies; and the mysterious art collector (Gabriel Byrne), who ultimately provides Becky’s passage into society, but at a high cost.

Ifans is sweet and reserved as William, but I liked him better in ‘Notting Hill,’ when he was let loose as Hugh Grant’s goofy roommate. Garai, the lead character from ‘I Capture the Castle’ is fine and even convincing early on, but does not mature well as the story’s years go by. Broadbent, Byrne, and Rhys-Meyers play their various despicabilities well, but we aren’t supposed to like any of them.

The stars play these scenes to the hilt and Nair infuses all of it with a lot of color (both costumes and scenery), but also a lot of intentional imperfection. The lawns of an estate during an elaborate lawn party are not lush and green, but patchy and trampled. We see paint peeling off of houses and dirty streets in the very neighborhoods in which dwell the absurdly wealthy. Nair also throws in as much of her native India as possible. The story moves there briefly several times and Indian culture is acutely evident in London society.

You’ll enjoy this film if you go in expecting to be entertained, but not necessarily moved. None of the characters is worth your emotional investment, but most of them deserve your interest and your laughter.