Brideshead Revisited (2008)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Julian Jarrold

Writers:

Andrew Davies (written by) and
Jeremy Brock (written by) ...

Release Date:

25 July 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Love is not ours to control

Plot:

Based on Evelyn Waugh's 1945 classic British novel, Brideshead Revisited is a poignant story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in England prior to the Second World War.

Plot Keywords:

Catholic | England | WWII | Box Office Flop | Gay Interest

Awards:

10 nominations

Cast

Matthew Goode	...	Charles Ryder
Thomas Morrison	...	Hooper
David Barrass	...	Ship's Barber
Anna Madeley	...	Celia Ryder
Sarah Crowden	...	Lady Guest
Stephen Carlile	...	English Lord
Peter Barnes	...	American Professor
Hayley Atwell	...	Julia Flyte
Patrick Malahide	...	Edward Ryder
Richard Teverson	...	Cousin Jasper
Joseph Beattie	...	Anthony Blanche
Ben Whishaw	...	Sebastian Flyte
Roger Walker	...	Lunt
Mark Field	...	Boy Markaster
Mark Edel-Hunt	...	Oxford Student

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content.

Runtime:

USA:133 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | UK:12A | Ireland:12A | Australia:PG | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:M18 | Denmark:A | New Zealand:M | Portugal:M/12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Finland:K-11 | Sweden:7

Filming Locations:

Art Deco Palm Court, Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, London, England, UK

Company:

2 Entertain

Trivia:

Castle Howard, which 'plays' Brideshead in this film, was also used to represent the same location in "Brideshead Revisited" (1981).

Goofs:

Factual errors: In Lord Marchmain's deathbed scene, Fr. Mackay imparts absolution while Charles Ryder and members of the family are in attendance. Absolution is never imparted in public in this way. The others would have been asked to step out. Moreover, the Latin form of the absolution given, although it is the correct traditional one, is badly mispronounced and contains several errors in the details of the Latin text.

Quotes:

[First Lines]
Charles Ryder: [Internal monologue while walking out of Brideshead Castle] If you asked me now who I am, the only answer I could give with any certainty would be my name: Charles Ryder. For the rest: my loves, my hates, down even to my deepest desires, I can no longer say whether these emotions are my own, or stolen from those I once so desperately wished to be. On second thoughts, one emotion remains my own. Alone among the borrowed and the second-hand, as pure as that faith from which I am still in flight: Guilt.

Movie Connections:

Version of "Brideshead Revisited" (1981)

Soundtrack:

Rumba

Brideshead . . . Revised? Brideshead . . . Reviled? Definitely NOT Brideshead Revisited

Here is the ultimate definition of cowardice. Mr. Jarrold apparently wanted to make a period piece but didn't have the courage to actually write his own stuff from scratch, so he stole character names and isolated scenes from Evelyn Waugh's classic, then superimposed his own much less interesting, much more banal story. The crime is that the Waugh estate allowed this piece of tripe to be released under the name "Brideshead Revisited."

How far does this thing go from the original? Well, let's see. Waugh wrote a profound meditation on the power of memory, the inevitable tragedies of life and love, and the mystery of faith. Jarrold gives us a not-very-titillating bisexual love triangle with a pasted on last reel reveal of the main character's shallow motivation. Waugh's characters were rich, multi-layered creations. Jarrold's are plasticine clichés with no depth, no recognizable motivation, and no growth . . . hell, they don't even age. In the 15 or so years in which Jarrold sets his story his characters look EXACTLY the same at the end as they did at the beginning.

One has to wonder what Jarrold was thinking If he didn't want to make something even remotely resembling Waugh's work, why use its title and steal a handful of its scenes? Was it just that he didn't think he could sell "Last Love Triangle in 1920s Venice?"