A good job, with some slightly modern flourishes - commentary to camera, slave condition sketches, actors 'freezing', some slightly lesbian hints. And some great sequences - the night horse ride that dissolves into shapes, and the dance montage. Frances O'Connor is great as Fanny - we would have known her for series one of
The Missing, also
Mr Selfridge and the 2002
Importance of Being Earnest. Then Jonny Lee Miller, Victoria Hamilton, Justine Waddell, Embeth Davidtz, Alessandro Livola, Lindsay Duncan (intelligently playing both Fanny's mother and aunt), James Purefoy, Sheila Gish and Harold Pinter making an impression as the mercurial head of the household.
Way back in 1987 Rozema made a film called
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, which is highly regarded, and which I think we've seen. I liked her direction, but she hasn't done a lot else but episodic TV work.
Charlestown in Cornwall is the Plymouth location.
Michael Coulter shoots superbly and the music by Lesley Barber is interesting.
I must actually
read some Jane Austen one of these days. (I note that certain JA fans don't rate this adaptation...)
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