I'd rate this film 8 out of 10 as it was more satisfying than I expected. I have no regrets over watching it even though most of the characters were quite irksome. Felicity Jones has been a favourite of mine ever since Northanger Abbey and I relished the opportunity of seeing her here as an entitled and tired young woman who has grown up a little too quickly.
Here we are, a wedding about to begin with the brooding bride left completely to her owns devices, assorted eccentric relatives chit- chatting downstairs and a former lover (which is obvious from the start) driving everybody crazy including the viewer. The brewing situation is quite predictable, I fail to see the need for all concerned to be ever so dramatic about it. I do believe that the bride is the only one who has the right to it. It is her life that will be tied down to a happy-go-lucky guy who is either not very bright or doesn't care enough about her to take her pet on their journey to live on another continent.
This film is really atmospheric, the sets are beautiful as well as the costumes although I can't say the same for Felicity's hair (what were they thinking? It looks like a wig that's askew).
The jilted lover is quite a pathetic figure who keeps getting on everybody's nerves after foolishly attending a wedding of a former lover - an invitation to which he should have obviously refused. He does provide the most satisfying drama at the end and is quite pleasant to look at. Despite all that he is a pathetic figure of a man who explodes (I have to admit - not without outrageous provocation) and offloads his unwanted feelings onto a room of onlookers after failing to do anything about getting the woman he wanted. She might have broken his heart - but what has he done about it? Spending some time with her, dancing a bit, chasing her in a boat and having sex with her after she initiated does not a proposal make. He admits that he never wanted to marry her - so what did he want? This unnecessary self-important romantic aggravation makes him an unsympathetic character.
We are left with the aftermath of a storm in a teacup and a gleeful telephone conversation the newlywed's mother is having with one of her colourful relatives. And they were a sight indeed: an overly dramatic younger sister looking for high romance and finding it in the bushes, silly cousins with a lampshade, a vulgar aunt with a Hitler look- alike chauffeur, spoilt child of a bitter couple with a truly odd sense of marital happiness - all eccentric, sad and amusing in their own ways. My favourite character is the friend/cousin with beautiful hair, clothes, face and sensitivity that is completely at odds with everybody else. The one thing I can't understand is why the need to be so mean to that sad little aunt who gets put in the same room as the tall man - a priest uncle? She seems harmless and nowhere as annoying as the bride's mother or the vulgar aunt.
All in all, a comic, at times poignant and somewhat bleak portrayal of an upper class English family with wonderful cinematography.
Here we are, a wedding about to begin with the brooding bride left completely to her owns devices, assorted eccentric relatives chit- chatting downstairs and a former lover (which is obvious from the start) driving everybody crazy including the viewer. The brewing situation is quite predictable, I fail to see the need for all concerned to be ever so dramatic about it. I do believe that the bride is the only one who has the right to it. It is her life that will be tied down to a happy-go-lucky guy who is either not very bright or doesn't care enough about her to take her pet on their journey to live on another continent.
This film is really atmospheric, the sets are beautiful as well as the costumes although I can't say the same for Felicity's hair (what were they thinking? It looks like a wig that's askew).
The jilted lover is quite a pathetic figure who keeps getting on everybody's nerves after foolishly attending a wedding of a former lover - an invitation to which he should have obviously refused. He does provide the most satisfying drama at the end and is quite pleasant to look at. Despite all that he is a pathetic figure of a man who explodes (I have to admit - not without outrageous provocation) and offloads his unwanted feelings onto a room of onlookers after failing to do anything about getting the woman he wanted. She might have broken his heart - but what has he done about it? Spending some time with her, dancing a bit, chasing her in a boat and having sex with her after she initiated does not a proposal make. He admits that he never wanted to marry her - so what did he want? This unnecessary self-important romantic aggravation makes him an unsympathetic character.
We are left with the aftermath of a storm in a teacup and a gleeful telephone conversation the newlywed's mother is having with one of her colourful relatives. And they were a sight indeed: an overly dramatic younger sister looking for high romance and finding it in the bushes, silly cousins with a lampshade, a vulgar aunt with a Hitler look- alike chauffeur, spoilt child of a bitter couple with a truly odd sense of marital happiness - all eccentric, sad and amusing in their own ways. My favourite character is the friend/cousin with beautiful hair, clothes, face and sensitivity that is completely at odds with everybody else. The one thing I can't understand is why the need to be so mean to that sad little aunt who gets put in the same room as the tall man - a priest uncle? She seems harmless and nowhere as annoying as the bride's mother or the vulgar aunt.
All in all, a comic, at times poignant and somewhat bleak portrayal of an upper class English family with wonderful cinematography.