'Brideshead Revisited' cold and uninvolving

Director: Julian Jarrold

Cast: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Patrick Malahide, Emma Thompson

Advice of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' variety holds good for films, where some re-makes are unnecessary.

How could you possibly improve on the classic 1981 TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s great, classic, complex and emotional novel of sexual turmoil, religious faith and lost innocence?

Certainly director Jarrold hasn’t managed it. He doesn’t even bring us a broken version of Waugh’s masterpiece,instead bringing us his own version of a WW2 period piece. If he had been honest enough from the outset and not conned us that this was the genuine article the film might have succeeded.

The story concerns Captain Charles Ryder (Goode) who visits the aristocratic, Catholic Flyte family during WW2 and forms tragic relationships with brother Sebastian (Whishaw) and sister Julia (Atwell).

But this adaptation misses the points underlined by Waugh, and ends up as a cold and uninvolving story that invites us to relate to characters without depth or sympathy.

Most of all the plotlines involving forbidden love and the examination of the Catholic faith are overplayed not truly considered.

All in all, then, a heartless and futile re-make of a great story.

Star Rating: 2/5