I Capture the Castle Review
Jun. 21st, 2003 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlI saw the Northern Ireland premiere of this at the end of my exams, in the little university cinema that's arty enough to call itself a 'film theatre' instead of a 'cinema'. I liked it a lot--not loved it absolutely, and have been meaning to review it for ages.
It was best in the early parts. I didn't like the way they changed the Cassandra/Mortmain/Topaz plot so that it looked like Topaz had actually left Mortmain, and wasn't even at Rose's wedding. (Oh, and I think it was very clear in the book Rose didn't sleep with Neil at the inn by the sea, but in the film it kind of implied she did.)
It was a little too emotional and weepy--I didn't like the bit where C. says her mother never felt loved. Also I missed Topaz's 'endearing quick change into hard-headedness' when she says to C. "Cut back and see what he's written!" I think her character suffered for it--she came across as the weird fake-arty stepmother who the girls are ready to disown, when 'the real Topaz is the one who cooks and scrubs and sews for us all.'
I also could have done without Tara Fitzgerald getting her kit off--could a back view not have been sufficient?? (Question: How did it manage a PG rating with TF full frontal?)
Things I liked: The casting. C. was perfect. Rose was pulled off really well--it would be easy to make her out mercenary and wholly unsympathetic. Thomas--I loved Thomas. Such a genuine 14-year-old! Everyone else was good-to-adequate--I didn't really like Mrs Cotton, or Neil at first, but he grew on me. Leda was deliciously slimy, and Simon was so Simon-ish.
One thing the film really emphasised for me was the change that comes over the Mortmains. When they're saying goodbye to the Cottons after the engagement, all six of them, and Stephen has Thomas piggy-back--they'll never be a family like that again. Rose is in America, and not on the best of terms with Cassandra, and Stephen is off making films, ditto.
And I am really glad they didn't change the ending to make it all 'Hollywood' and saccharine.
It was best in the early parts. I didn't like the way they changed the Cassandra/Mortmain/Topaz plot so that it looked like Topaz had actually left Mortmain, and wasn't even at Rose's wedding. (Oh, and I think it was very clear in the book Rose didn't sleep with Neil at the inn by the sea, but in the film it kind of implied she did.)
It was a little too emotional and weepy--I didn't like the bit where C. says her mother never felt loved. Also I missed Topaz's 'endearing quick change into hard-headedness' when she says to C. "Cut back and see what he's written!" I think her character suffered for it--she came across as the weird fake-arty stepmother who the girls are ready to disown, when 'the real Topaz is the one who cooks and scrubs and sews for us all.'
I also could have done without Tara Fitzgerald getting her kit off--could a back view not have been sufficient?? (Question: How did it manage a PG rating with TF full frontal?)
Things I liked: The casting. C. was perfect. Rose was pulled off really well--it would be easy to make her out mercenary and wholly unsympathetic. Thomas--I loved Thomas. Such a genuine 14-year-old! Everyone else was good-to-adequate--I didn't really like Mrs Cotton, or Neil at first, but he grew on me. Leda was deliciously slimy, and Simon was so Simon-ish.
One thing the film really emphasised for me was the change that comes over the Mortmains. When they're saying goodbye to the Cottons after the engagement, all six of them, and Stephen has Thomas piggy-back--they'll never be a family like that again. Rose is in America, and not on the best of terms with Cassandra, and Stephen is off making films, ditto.
And I am really glad they didn't change the ending to make it all 'Hollywood' and saccharine.
