Thoroughly Entertaining and Whimsically Humorous Trollope Adaptation

l_rawjalaurence

After a slow beginning, during which time the story unfolds in a series of shot/reverse shot sequences accompanied by Ilan Eshkeri's rather obtrusive music, Julian Fellowes's adaptation of a lesser known Trollope novel proves extremely entertaining.

This is due in no small part to the eternal conflict between money, power, and love that underpins the plot. Pauper Mary Thorne (Stefanie Martini) loves rich Frank Gresham (Harry Richardson), but their path towards true romance is perpetually blocked by Frank's avaricious mother Lady Arabella (Rebecca Front). Add to the mix a drunken baronet (Ian McShane), and his even more loutish son Louis (Edward Franklin), with designs on Mary, not to mention a slob-like nouveau riche man Mr. Moffatt (Danny Kirrane), and we have the perfect recipe for a series of conflicts between characters of different generations and different socio-economic groups.

At the story's heart stands the eponymous Doctor Thorne (Tom Hollander), a basically good-hearted person with a penchant for protecting those less able to defend themselves against unwonted social criticism. Director Niall MacCormick uses the close-up to good effect, showing Thorne's suppressed emotions in the most difficult situations, which only boil over once during a dinner party when Louis unleashes a volley of drunken insults at the entire company.

Fellowes's script is not without its humorous elements, especially in the comic opportunities given to Lady Arabella and her equally avaricious sister-in-law the Countess de Courcy (Phoebe Nicholls). Like a pair of aging dowagers they stride through the Gresham family seat, knocking everything and everyone aside in their attempts to break up Mary and Frank's affair. However they get their comeuppance in the end, when Mary's true social status is revealed. The sight of Lady Arabella's henpecked husband Frank (Richard McCabe) laughing fit to burst is one of the adaptation's most memorable moments.

Filmed in and around stately piles in Wiltshire, Somerset, and Hertfordshire, DOCTOR THORNE convincingly recreates a world of rigid socio-economic divisions where everyone was supposed to know their place and accept it. The fact that Doctor Thorne refuses to conform to his expected role gives this adaptation its dramatic impetus. It is only a short adaptation - 3 episodes of 48 minutes each - but it is extremely watchable.

score 8/10

l_rawjalaurence 27 March 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3440018/