Evelyn Waugh was supposed to be a comic novelist, and certainly a dip into the novel (published 1934) shows a wry tone. But there's not much evidence of humour or irony in this adaptation, which succeeds only in being overwhelmingly sad. (It does preserve the great ironic line voiced by the adulterous wife "I am still fond of him, despite the monstrous way he's behaved.") William Boyd argues it is not Waugh's best, overrated and disconnected, such as the ending being stitched on from a previously published short story. And one of his criticisms of the book - the wife thinking first the identity of the dead 'John' is her lover's - applies to the film too - we don't really think of the lover as 'John' but as 'Beaver'.
There's no problem with the way it is acted by Kristin Scott Thomas, James Wilby, Rupert Graves, Judi Dench, Pip Torrens, Alec Guinness, Stephen Fry, Anjelica Huston and Graham Crowden.
George Fenton's pan pipes seems at odds with the main part of the film - clearly they are there to predict or unify the last chapter with the rest of the film. Peter Hannan shot it and it's one of those big budget ITV productions you no longer find - hoping perhaps to chase the tail of Brideshead's 1981 small screen success also directed by Sturridge.
The ending is nightmarish - a kind of Hammer House of Horror ending - and is a cautionary reminder not to go wandering impulsively into the Brazilian jungle with eccentric professors. (In fact, in light of the stay-at-home dullness of the character, it seems most improbable.)
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