Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – Far from the Madding Crowd (Movie Review)

Far from the Madding Crowd (UK Rating: 12A)

He's the man at the helm of this new version, which is released around the UK this Friday, 1st May, and it's one that could divide the fans straight down the middle. He has, inevitably, retained the storyline at the core of the novel, which is set in 1890s Wessex. The fiercely independent Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) has just rejected a proposal of marriage from local farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts) when she finds out she's inherited a large farm. Deciding to run it herself, she employs Oak who has lost his farm, but she also foolishly flirts with local landowner, William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) and becomes infatuated with Sergeant Troy (Tom Sturridge). Which of the three men will she choose?

Whilst the romance remains intact, just about everything else has gone. There are important sections of the novel that have simply been left out and the locals who work on the farm have been downgraded to just a workforce. In the book - and the original film - they provided character, as well as rural colour and humour - a finely tuned relief from all the complications of Bathsheba's love life. In Vinterberg's hands, they just fade into the background, and, even though he retains some of the novel's major dramatic scenes, they are not the high points that they should be. Troy's (Tom Sturridge) seduction of Bathsheba through swordplay is given an intimate forest setting, but the sequence is surprisingly asexual, and Gabriel's saving of the harvest in a vicious storm is given little prominence, appearing to be there simply to give Bathsheba another chance to flash a girly smile at him.

Out of the men in her life, the most interesting piece of acting comes from Michael Sheen as Boldwood. He's attempted to do something different with the role, veering away from the brooding intensity usually associated with the part, and creating a twitchy man living on the edge of his nerves. It's consistent with the concerns expressed about his mental health and only falls down towards the end when the more obsessive side of his nature is revealed. The choice of Belgian actor Matthias Schoenearts as Oak is a curious one and, for a man who's supposed never to strayed from Wessex, he certainly doesn't sound like it! There are moments, however, when he strikes the right note and there are times when he looks at Bathsheba in such a way that it would melt any woman's heart, which means that Vinterberg really didn't need to be so heavy handed in his pointers as to how things will turn out.

The most challenging part has always been Troy, and if Carey Mulligan's Bathsheba is the best thing in the film, Tom Sturridge's performance is its weakest link. He's horribly miscast and simply not up to the job, giving off an air of a teenage ex-public schoolboy who fancies himself as Bathsheba's toy boy. He's unconvincing as a soldier and his pivotal relationship with the maid, Fanny Robbin, falls into the same category.

6/10

Good

Anybody unfamiliar with the novel, and/or the original film, will have a romantic couple of hours set among the beauty of the Wessex countryside. Those who know either, or both, will probably find it wanting in a number of ways, because. However, thanks to Carey Mulligan's spirited performance, Far from the Madding Crowd is still watchable - even if it is one remake too far.