FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD IN THE 21ST CENTURY

I have said this before and I will say it again, there is nothing quite like a good period drama. The sweeping skirts the high emotion, that sense of being transported to another world… Many are the cases where there isn’t much thinking needed – we are watching a thing of beauty, to be admired as the embodiment of a beloved tale but then set aside – except possibly to form mental pictures when we read the book itself if, like in the case of Far From The Madding Crowd, it was an adaptation.

This newest incarnation of the spirited young heiress Bathsheba Everdene comes at a very interesting time in cinematic history. Her current embodiment, Carey Mulligan, is a part of a very vocal part of a growing and high profile movement in the arts promoting equal pay and opportunities for women. Her next big film will in fact be none other than Suffragette, the story of the birth of the women’s rights movement in England. Unless you have actually been living under a stone, you will have heard something about how Viola Davis triumphed at the Emmys and you will have read something of her acceptance speech that underlines the need for more opportunities for actresses of colour . You might not think that a 19^th century novel taking place on a sweeping country estate is not the ideal place to start discussing women’s equality (except maybe to point it out as a terrible example). But those who are in the know will know, Bathsheba Everdene is not your average 19^th century heroine…

She is, in fact, a young woman of very modest means who is swept to the head of an illustrious country estate as an heiress  and fear not, the whole Deus ex machina nature of this is really, really not lost on me.  But this is not about her rags to riches story. It is more about what she does after she arrives at the riches. It is common to think of 19^th century heroines as faint hearted little things, all tight corsets and smelling salts, but Bathsheba is a definite exception. She is a canny businesswoman, excellent at managing her staff and brave in the face of the disapproval surrounding her. Her beauty and intelligence (and of course her riches) make her the catch of the area, soon suitors of all walks of life start openly courting her… Bathsheba  is her own woman, and has a lot of plans about her life – and becoming someone’s wife is definitely not among them…

What strikes one straight away is what a modern heroine Bathsheba is. Even in modern cinema and literature one struggles to find a heroine that is so much an active agent in her own destiny – so it is surprising to see a heroine from a hundred years ago putting modern heroines to shame. Carey Mulligan, it must be said, takes the role on with gusto and spirit. I can, at this point, barely imagine anyone else taking on the part. Another performer who has been highly praised is Michael Sheen or stars as one of her suitors, her neighbour Mr Boldwood – I honestly wish we could see more of him in the story but he has two other suitors to contend with so we must make do with relishing the sheer quality of performance over the comparative lack of quantity. One of the main suitors, Gabriel Oak, is brought to life by Mathias Schoenarts. Schoenarts is well suited for the handsome yet slightly sullen Farmer Oak, although – and I don’t  I can never decide whether he has simply been cast in a series of characters that find it difficult to display emotion or that the actor himself actually finds displaying emotion hard… 

A lot has been said on how pretty the film is, and I must agree. The stunning Kent countryside is a character of the film itself. And although there are some very poignant moments in the film where you are literally hanging off the edge of your seat, by and large, the film is beautiful. But not that deeply engaging. This is an unsurprising result of adapting a long and complex novel into a two hour commercial film intent on getting bums on seats (as is the want with all of show business).The resulting film is rather pretty but has lost some of its grit along the way. It is polished and a little too perfect – as if it is trying very hard to get all the requirements for a period drama correct so that we can focus on the more thought provoking aspects of the film. Or possibly so we can pardon them…

The problem is that the lack of grit makes the whole affair even less believable. The story loses some of its strength through sheer poise and grace. To give but one example, I would have wanted Gabriel Oak to have a bit more of a rant – not full-blown broken furniture but still something – when he realises that Sergeant Troys insistence on ignoring the approaching storm may well ruin them all. Similarly, in the scenes that follow I think Bathsheba could very well have made a bit more of a fuss (to put it mildly) as the details of Troys past come pouring out. I mean of course she reacts but it all feels very much single tear rolling gracefully down the cheek… It is as if marriage (minor spoiler alert) has deflated Bathsheba’s spirit overnight, making her very elegant but about half the woman she was at the beginning of the film. This change may well have taken place during married life but I very much doubt it would have happened within about a week of being wed…  

All told, Far From The Madding Crowd is enjoyable. Yes it could have been bigger, stronger, more. But what it has is still quite strong, elegant and graceful. It is an artistic choice at the end of the day – you could go down the route of underlining the feminism in the story and going for something more gritty, modern and realistic. But another choice is to hint at those themes and stick with the period drama routes of the production – it makes it the best of both worlds, edgy but just safe enough… Being a businesswoman, I am sure Bathsheba would have understood…