Vanity Fair

Genre: period drama

With: Reese Witherspoon (Becky Sharp), Romola Garai (Amelia Sedley), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (George Osborne), Bob Hoskins (Sir Pitt Crawley), Eileen Atkins (Miss Matilda Crawley), James Purefoy (Rawdon Crawley), Douglas Hodge (Pitt Crawley), Jim Broadbent (Mr. Osborne), Gabriel Byrne (Marquess of Steyne) Rhys Ifans (William Dobbin)

Director: Mira Nair

Screenplay: Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes (from a novel by William Thackeray, 1848)

Release: 2004

Studio: Focus Features, Tempesta Films, Granada Film Productions et al.

Rating: PG

MBiS score: 8.1/10





The Social Ladder and How to Climb It





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Story-line: London, the early 1800s. Becky, an orphaned girl of modest means, finds work as a governess and is noticed by several in good society.

Pluses: a splendid cast led by Reese Witherspoon as the plucky and ambitious Becky, Bob Hoskins (the delightfully vulgar Sir Pitt), Eileen Atkins and a magnetic James Purefoy, a solid, multi-character screenplay based on a classic piece of literature, one truly electric love scene, large-scale production values, beautiful cinematography and a satisfying ending.

Minuses: the pacing is a bit slow but unavoidably so, considering the many twists and turns in the story.

Comments: when you think about it, Becky Sharp has a lot in common with Scarlett O’Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND. Some critics have panned VANITY FAIR, calling it a regrettable mix of satire and romance and claiming that Reese Witherspoon lacked gravitas but I respectfully disagree on both counts; not all American actresses can manage British roles and, in this case, Reese Witherspoon does so with undeniable flair. Fear not… you will be thoroughly entertained by VANITY FAIR with its many surprises, romantic entanglements and engaging characters.





MBiS



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