Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

selffamily I much prefer this version to the film, which naturally has its limitation of time to be considered. The cast I believe to be perfect, so much is said without words and the story plays along beautifully. It's been some years since I read the book, it's always on my list but gets pushed back because I have read it before, but perhaps this year? Becky is a delicious minx and Amelia is gullible and sweet. I loved Josh Sedley, adored Dobbin and Rawdon. There are so many brilliantly drawn characters, too many to mention. It's absorbing and entertaining, funny and heart wrenching. I have watched and enjoyed this before and no doubt will do so again.

TMMVDS I have usually enjoyed tremendously British mini-series based on classic novels, but...I read that wonderful novel some 15 years ago when I was still teenager and I fell in love with it instantly. There can't be many novels as witty, hilarious or ironic than this. Thackeray has a genius in understanding humanity all in its various forms. He is a objective spectator who sees all what's happening around him, and understands human nature incredibly well. He don't judge or praise anyone or anything. 'That's life' he shows us, and let the readers do their own convictions.But then I saw this tv-series, and if I hadn't read the book first, maybe I wouldn't have bothered to do so after it either. You can't spoil a novel that good completely, but still that tv-series left much to hope for. Like in other mini-series, Tom Jones, made at the same time, there should have been a commentator in it (novelist's alter ego). One of Vanity Fair's strong points are those wonderful comments which Thackeray made throughout the book. Without them half the fun is missing.I should also complain about annoyingly boisterous music, lack of colour and the casting, which wasn't that impressive in my opinion. Well, of course I had great expectations, but if you haven't read the original novel, or think it's something unique, this adaption might not be that bad. After all, it's made by Brits and they rarely give us anything totally rubbish.

Cinemasitter Rarely has a classic work of literature been adapted for television so well. This is a marvellous retelling of William Thackeray's 19th century novel, successful in almost every possible way. Purists may quibble that any attempt to adapt this sprawling bane of literature students' lives will always be doomed to failure simply because of the sheer size of it. But what makes this so good, particularly for those familiar with the novel, are two things: its total commitment to the spirit of 'Vanity Fair', and joyously perfect casting and acting.As readers of VF will know, the narrator plays a very important part in the book. His sly comments on the 'puppets' (as he often refers to the characters) that perform in his 'play' are frequently funny, exciting and always engaging. If VF is indeed 'a novel without a hero', it is no less engrossing for it. For the story is literally a Fair: characters come and go as the narrator sees fit while we the audience look on with amusement. We start with both Becky Sharp (the main character but not the traditional heroine as Thackeray's contemporary audience would have expected) and Amelia Sedley, and we follow their fortunes and interaction with other characters over some twenty or thirty years. Characters come, characters go; some die, some are born. But nearly always the narrator is there to invite us to feel something towards them: sympathy, repulsion, anger, love. And though he is notable by his absence in the book's most powerful scenes, he will return shortly to talk about something else that another character is getting up to. This is where this adaptation nails the spirit of VF so precisely; it never forgets that these characters are puppets in a play, performing for our entertainment. Traditional bandstand music plays over scenes to reinforce this impression. The comedy elements make us laugh (Jos Sedley and his enormous, well-fed behind trying to mount a horse or carriage), the battle scenes are visceral, the dramatic scenes are engrossing. And the sly comments of the narrator are subtly retained in bizarre camera shots: the fat pig snuffling outside Queen's Crawley, or the beggar playing 'Rule Britannia' with his little bells as the soldiers march off to fight the Battle of Waterloo.But this would have been for nought if the casting had not been spot on. Natasha Little IS Becky Sharp. Beautiful, alluring, charming, witty, cunning, deceptive and manipulative, she is every man's dream on the outside (I fell in love with her, and I can see all she is getting up to!). One look from her eyes is all that is required to get her climbing the social ladder, which ultimately is all that she wants. Frances Grey is also perfect as Amelia; not as beautiful as Becky, but still pleasant, sweet and kind-hearted, and forever doting on George Osborne. Tom Ward as Osborne was not what I was expecting, yet he got it right: a dashing English officer, strikingly handsome, and not totally devoid of morals, but very easily succumbs to his vanity and pride. Philip Glenister as the only genuinely heroic character in the book (though still not without faults), Dobbin, again is not how I pictured the character, but again nails it perfectly: slightly clumsy, socially awkward, but clear thinking, level-headed and always ready to do the right thing. The rest of the cast play their respective grotesques with equal perfection and relish - to single out each and every one is impossible, though all deserve it.As a lover of this book, I congratulate all on a job well done. I cannot comment on how someone who has not read VF will like this series, but I can understand that they may be a little bewildered by it all: the occasional dizzy camerawork and loud brass band music. So long as you understand that we are the audience of a colourful, vibrant fair populated by a rich assortment of people, all with faults, all with redeeming features (however materialistic they might be), then I think you should derive great pleasure from it, because more than anything, this is great fun.

ehg I enjoyed Vanity Fair. However, it probably won't be on my top ten list of mini-series to watch. I love Andrew Davies work, but the character of Becky Sharp was dialogued rather sparsely. How many times can Ms. Sharp "look sultry and seductive" instead of speaking? The stand-outs in the cast are the man who played William Dobbins (Phillip Glenister) and Joss Sedley (Jeremy Swift).