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The cast is a strong one, with David Suchet's Melmotte gripping in his recklessness, climaxing in the theatrical magnificence of his departure in disgrace from the House of Commons. Shirley Henderson is magnetic as his put-upon daughter Marie, courted by the cream-of-society bachelors for her dowry rather than her person. Cheryl Campbell gives a good account of the feckless Lady Carbury, writing vacuous novels to support her family, with Matthew MacFadyen relishing the part of her rakish son, Felix. Paloma Baeza is sympathetic as her daughter, Hetta, whose on-off relationship with entrepreneur Paul Montague, ably taken by Cillian Murphy, provides the main love interest. Douglas Hodge impresses as the loyal and sincere but insipid Roger Carbury.
The series consists of four generous episodes, each lasting 75 minutes. This is an absorbing production of what isn't the most subtle of Victorian novels, but which surely remains among the most relevant. --Richard Whitehouse
Video Details
Episode 1: When infamous financier Augustus Melmotte (David Suchet) mysteriously appears in London, the city's impoverished aristocrats greedily court his favor. Felix Carbury, a charming but lazy young baronet, is one of the many gentlemen swarming around Melmotte's rich heiress daughter, Marie. Meanwhile, Felix's independently minded sister, Hetta, falls in love with a bright young engineer, Paul Montague, who is in town to approach Melmotte with an ambitious business propostion. Complications soon arise in business and love.
Episode 2: While Paul Montague throws himself into the booming railway business with Melmotte, the presence of his mysterious American friend in London threatens to jeopardize his chances with Hetta. Felix is forced to desperate measures to secure his future with Marie when he learns that her father is planning her marriage to a rival suitor.
Episode 3: Paul visits Mexico to have his worst fears about the railway construction confirmed. Returning to London he decides to confront Melmotte and resolve his romantic situation. Melmotte involves himself in increasingly ambitious business schemes while Felix gets himself into further trouble and Hetta recieves some devastating news.
Episode 4: Melmotte reaches the highest echelons of London society but the wolves are beginning to gather at his door. Paul takes his chance to act and Felix comes face to face with some tough opposition, while Hetta contemplates settling for second best. Climaxing in love lost, love gained, a death and some just desserts.
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Have read the novel,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Way We Live Now (VHS Tape)
Overall this film does a good job with the novel. I do wish it had given the full ending (the novel tells what happens to Madame and Marie Melmotte, and the film doesn't). I do think the film is over-dramatised, with too much shouting and too much sex. The often loud modern background music is distracting at times, particularly when it gets into woo-woo-woo wordless female vocals. The characters are all played very well with the exception of Marie Melmotte. The actress uses a coy, childlike female voice reminiscent of some 1920s female comic singers. Also, I think the film misinterprets Marie's character. In the book she was lonely; ignored by her stepmother, used by her father to further his ambitions regardless of her wishes--even beaten by him--and despised by society, who only valued her father's money. Marie was also naive, ready to believe Felix's avows of love because no one else made any (her other suitors are too gentlemanly to lie as extravagantly as Felix). And, none of the Melmottes were entirely conversant with the habits of upper-class British society. However, in the film Marie is also portrayed as so (...) that she siezes every opportunity to kiss and fondle Felix, even publicly dragging him behind doors at parties and stroking his thighs in front of numerous dinner guests. This is simply not Anthony Trollope. Also, I'd expect Marie might get confused about which fork to use, but not to tear at her food like a savage. However, I'm going to keep this film in my collection--and remember it next time I'm tempted to buy high-tech stock.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
That Moutet woman,
By
This review is from: Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now (2001) (DVD)
She watches all the BBC videos in Clermont-Ferrand or Limoges or wherever... I checked out her other reviews and there is a thread of a primitive feminism, strange interest in contemporary affairs expressed as "Bush Dynasty" and a pointed remark "I am reading (or watching) all this {stuff reviewed} in France. Well, friends, I have news for Mmselle Moutet : Her compatriots don't give a damn about their own heritage, yeah, they have some DVDs of Louis de Funes, Jacques Tati etal, but where are the Cayattes, Autant-Laras, Delannoys, Clouzots, huh ?? Where are the inspired and enlightened film or DVD interpretations of Zola, Nizan, Celine and countless others. Oh, yes, Mme.Bovary rules, for obvious reasons. So she will judge "The Way We Live Now" from the benighted distance of Vichy...The closest I can come to praise the French heritage preservation is the Claude Lelouch's astounding "Les Miserables", it was a flop in France, (nobody reads Victor Hugo any more and is willing to accept an extrapolation of his novel). The richness of Mmlle. Moutet culture is indubitable, but she fails to observe it but rather she choses to critique the Anglo-Saxon stuff. I wonder why .. This Trollop film version is as good as could be, as the requirements of a filmic interpretation are different from the original purely literary (verbal) content - and - yes, most of us read the novel at least once and can well imagine the quandaries of the transfer to an audio-visual medium. But the point is : What is bugging the French ?? You know, I am fluent in French language, and when in France, I delight in confronting all the nasty little Parisians in their very idiom. But I wouldn't go on Amazon.fr and review a vacuous piece of self professed non-fiction, which in fact is a fiction for most part. I could easily get these clues from "Neue Zuricher Zeitung", "The Economist", and even the "Christian Science Monitor" or "Der Spiegel". Trust the BBC not for their news, but for the recent renewal of their interest in the English heritage.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Book to video is usually a loser, this time more than usual,
By
This review is from: Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now (2001) (DVD)
Trollope was a great writer. His characters were never caricatures or sterile, but fully-developed and interesting, even the most fleeting. And his plots, while not the engine to the story, moved the characters in ways worth following. While not my favorite novel, this is a fine book, with many wonderful, scintillating stories (too many really!) and a cast that makes the head dizzy with their deceptions and foolishness,Hard stuff to film, and given the new Masterpiece Theater interest in flair over substance, it is especially challenging. The sets are amazing, the costumes gorgeous, the hair and small details all spot-on (have we ever seen a character step in manure before? though it must have been all over). Yet somehow, the thing never hangs together. People drive Trollope's tales, long, complicated speeches between those who know each other well, and when that is lost, it would require much better writing than is evidenced here to be successful. The actors act and look well, but never inhabit their characters. Though there are many fine ones present, (other than Mrs. Hurtle and that annoying Gone With the Wind accent) they are forced to superficialize when compressing so much into so little time. It is not a disaster; the board meetings are truly wonderful, the easily manipulated greedily applauding their pickpocket, and poor Brehgert is just beautifully drawn. But Marie is just shrill, Felix is annoying, and Melmotte himself comes across as all puff and bombast. It's hard to see in this how he could maintain his illusion for so long. And the required coincidences that seem more plausible in a big book look especially cloying when removed from their camouflage. Passable, in some ways delightful, but nothing more than a tepid adaptation of a robust book.
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