Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Red-125 "The Way We Live Now" (2001) is a four-episode BBC miniseries directed by David Yates. The book is based on a novel written by Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882). Trollope was a brilliant Victorian novelist, but, unlike his contemporary Charles Dickens, Trollope's name is not nearly as well known in the 21st Century. However, the BBC has produced several of his works, and they are worth seeing.This novel is Trollope's longest, and possibly his most complex. Someone has estimated that there are over 100 named characters, and subplots abound. However, all the plots and subplots involve Augustus Melmotte, a shady character with grandiose schemes. Melmotte has the uncanny ability to make people want to give him money. He wants the money because his goal in life is to be an English gentleman.If there had been a weak actor playing Augustus Melmotte, the whole movie would have fallen apart. This movie hung together because David Suchet played Melmotte so well. You'll have to see the film to know just how completely Suchet takes over the role of Melmotte.Most of the supporting cast was at the usual high BBC level. Matthew Macfadyen plays Sir Felix Carbury, the cad, very well. Paloma Baeza plays Hetta Carbury, his lovely sister who is everything Sir Felix is not. I think that the two weakest actors were Cillian Murphy as Paul Montague, and Miranda Otto as Mrs. Hurtle. Paul Montague is supposed to be the perfect Victorian hero. He's an engineer, and he isn't driven by greed. He's driven by the goal of designing and building the Mexican railroad. (The Mexican railroad is the starting point of Melmotte's rise to financial power.) The problem is that Murphy doesn't look or act the part. His character is not that different--in appearance or manner--from Sir Felix Carbury. They are supposed to be at opposite poles, but they aren't.Miranda Otto is an Australian actor who has been given the role of an American from Oregon. Otto has a strong Southern US accent, which doesn't work. It's certainly possible that Mrs. Hurtle was originally from the U.S. South, and moved to Oregon. However, her Southern accent doesn't sound right, and it's clear that she is struggling with it whenever she's on screen.As an interesting side note, Mr. Brehgert, a Jewish banker, is acted by Jim Carter, who plays Carson the butler on Downton Abbey. He's in love with an elegant Englishwoman, and his religion stands in the way of their marriage. His bank lends money to Melmotte. That's another subplot that revolves around the mysterious Augustus Melmotte.I enjoyed this miniseries, and I recommend it highly. Without Suchet it could have been a failure. With Suchet, it's a triumph. We saw it on the small screen at home, and it worked very well. (There are a few outdoor scenes that would work better in a theater, but most of them are fillers put into the movie to "open it up." The real plots take place indoors, and they work well on DVD.) Seek out this movie and watch it! You'll be glad you did.

marspeach Well, I finished watching the 2001 miniseries, written by Andrew Davies. A lot was altered from the book and since I wasn't the biggest fan of the book, you'd think I would love it, right? Wrong! I know Andrew Davies is famous for sexing up all his adaptations but this was ridiculous, even for him.I will admit, most of the actors were good with what they were given. The problem is, often I didn't like what they were given! Sir Felix as played by the lovely Matthew MacFadyen was portrayed as much more sympathetic as in the book and really isn't punished in the end. I think Davies was a little fond of the character, actually. His sister Hetta is unrecognizable from the book, being outspoken and free-spirited in the beginning- always giving her mother and brother a piece of her mind. I did find Hetta pretty boring for most of the book because she doesn't do much but it didn't really have any impact when she went against her family to be with Paul, since she was always so openly against them from the start! Mrs. Hurtle as played by Miranda Otto was horrible. The pitiful excuse for a Southern accent was grating to my ears. I found her character one of the most interesting in the book and still sympathetic, but not so in the mini. As for Paul Montague, they tried to make him a stronger character but I really didn't buy it from pretty boy Cillian Murphy. What were they thinking putting such an effeminate looking man in that part? I did like the casting of Lady Carbury, Roger Carbury, and Mr. Melmotte. The latter was very close to how I imagined him in the book. Shirley Henderson as her daughter, Marie, however, was just…bizarre, for lack of a better word.So yeah, I was really not happy with this adaptation.

claudecat "The Way We Live Now", a BBC/WGBH co-production, is powerful, and features some fine acting and well-written scenes, as well as lush settings and costumes, but it's obvious even to those who haven't read Anthony Trollope's novel that the story has been "jacked up" for modern viewers. On its own terms, the mini-series mostly gripped my attention, but I wondered if sections had been cut from the American release, because some parts of the story seem to be missing. For example, two characters who like each other in Episode 3 have already become engaged and estranged at the beginning of Episode 4--the actual proposal having been skipped over. The decision to cut such important plot elements in favor of unnecessary but atmospheric scenes (such as a wander with some characters through the forest on a fruitless deer hunt) was strange to me, but some viewers may prefer it. The director heightens many scenes by adding unnaturally loud sound effects, which will strike some as artfully intense, and others as vulgar.As far as its faithfulness to the novel, director David Yates and screenwriter Andrew Davies appear to have followed a "simplify and exaggerate" policy, presumably to make the story and characters clearer and more likable to a modern audience. It was easy to guess that the young women in the miniseries are made feistier and more independent than they are in the 19th-century original, but I was surprised, upon reading the book, to find that Paul Montague (Cillian Murphy) is also much more diffident on the page than he is on screen. Some changes fit well into a modern worldview: the love of Roger Carbury for his cousin Hetta is, rightly by today's standards, characterized as patronizing and oppressive, though Trollope wouldn't see it that way. But strangely, the fascinating character of Mrs. Hurtle, who has some of the most interesting speeches in the book, is reduced to being a "Southern" temptress in Miranda Otto's odd performance (since Mrs. Hurtle is only connected with Kansas and San Francisco in the original, the choice to make her speak like Tallulah Bankhead playing Julia Sugarbaker is puzzling).Andrew Davies' screenplay has some fine moments, and certain scenes shine. However, he gives the story the same invented ending as he's given at least one other miniseries based on a 19th-century novel.All in all, recommended for fans of period drama--with qualifications.

Julie-30 The book The Way We Live Now is arguably Trollope's masterpiece. The book is a brilliant story of white-collar corruption that Davies turns into a recitation of Sir Felix Carbury's sexual conquests. Trollope's Sir Felix is worse than a cad; he is a scoundrel. But Davies glosses over the terrible things he does to his mother, to his sister and to the other women around him and makes him appear to be nothing more than a misunderstood young man. The end of the book is not ambiguous, but the end of the series is.One other thing I hated, and this most likely has nothing to do with Andrew Davies. Miranda Otto was awful as Mrs. Hurtle. I cannot imagine anyone believing she is an American.What a waste of time. I want those hours of my life back.