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Too many adaptations of Dickens seem to play up the preposterous aspects of his characterisation; here everything was beautifully underplayed, to terrific effect.
I found the drama as compelling as any modern soap opera. We are so used to the format by now, that it was never going to be a surprise that several seeming unconnected leading characters would end up being close family relations, but it was still fascinating to find out who would be related to whom, and which characters' love stories would end up in happiness.
The performances were so excellent that it seems unnecessary to single a few out for praise. Yet there were some for me that were especially memorable. Gillian Anderson was sublime as Lady Dedlock and I was transfixed whenever she was on screen. The whole relationship between her and her husband and the issue of her 'past' was beautifully portrayed, and I found it very moving towards the end when crusty of Sir Lester (Timothy West) stood by her grave and said 'If only she knew how much I loved her, and how little I cared for what the world thought of her.' Philip Davis' Smallweed was a masterly performance, keeping firmly grounded a character that could so easily have been merely a period grotesque if handled less skillfully. Anna Maxwell Martin made the goody-two-shoes Esther believable and three dimensional. And Johhny Vegas brought an interesting sinister dimension to Krook, which came as something of a surprise to me having known previously only his knock-about subtle-as-a-brick comedy persona.
What particularly pleased me, as someone who tires of shoddy dramas that thrown in foul language and humping bums to generate interest, is that Bleak House brought a tale of sexual misdeeds, and doomed amorous attachments, set partly in a world of grinding poverty, criminality and violence, without the drama itself being offensive. It is rare that drama is really adult these days; but Bleak House was, I felt, real entertainment for grown-ups.
score /10
michael-stead 10 January 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1261244/ |
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8-11-2020 13:04:17