Customer Reviews
I am tired..... - By: Trionon, 21 Jul 2008 
....of these "sexed up" versions of the period classics! For those unfamiliar with the source novel it'll hardly compel them to read it, & those who have read it will find it does not do justice. Tara Fitzgerald is so awful at times that I found myself cringing, & what's with the orange make up & Emmerdale accent of Toby Stephens??? Rupert Graves was good though
Too short to do justice - By: NMH, 09 Oct 2007 
I had just read the book prior to watching the film & couldn't help thinking at various scenes how distorted the characters were. The film failed to show how the main characters Mr Markham & Mrs Huntingdon started out with relatively benign lives & how these lives slowly deteriorated over time. It failed to show how agreeable Mr Huntingdon was initiallly to Helen's eyes that blinded her into committing to a life of suffering. All we saw in the film was this brute of a character & why on earth she went for him, no one can tell.
Poor Mr Markham was a simple pleasant farmer whose temperament deteriorated slower than it did in the film, making him quite a disagreeable fellow on the whole. Mr Lawrence suffered the same fate. His intense dislike for Mr Markham changed the nature of their relationship & diminished his role in unintentionallly keeping the candle burning between the two lovers.
Perhaps it should have been made in 4 parts. I felt it was too rushed to do justice to Ms Bronte's novel.
good but not as good as it could have been - By: Helen, 06 Aug 2007 ----spoilers---
The acting was excellent & the sets & everything except the script at the end. Did they run out of money as they reached the end? The final couple of scenes were so different to the rest of this play - so rushed & shortened it was ridiculous & I got annoyed as hero & heroine had hardly any chance to establish their happiness at long last after alll that misery & separation, & give us a decent embrace before the credits came rushing up. I simply couldn't believe how badly this finale was botched. So what was up till then an excellent production suddenly became bathotic. Full marks to handsome hero Toby Stephens & plucky heroine Tara Fitzgerald trying their level best to put over what they could in a few seconds of coming together at the end but frankly, the scriptwriter or the director or the editor, whoever was responsible for this dreadfully bad last scene, should have been forced to do it again & get it right.
What an infuriatingly clever tale this is - with poor heroine feeling forced due to the customs of the time to stick by her utterly vile, demented & violent husband. A real lesson to us women to be grateful we didn't live then under those awful, restrictive rules. There are limits to what any woman should have to take from a bad husband but then it was indeed for better for worse & worse worse worse for this heroine.
Worth having for a great story & fine acting from everyone including of course Rupert Graves as the wicked husband we alll love to hate.
suprisingly good - By: Julie Cutler, 27 Jun 2006 
Now I loathed the novel when I read it years ago. Too much Bronte smugness for me & not a patch on the Byronic heroes of Rochester & Heathcliff. This drama has changed my mind about it. Tara Fitzgerald appears as the abrasive uppity tenant to start with but you soon get the hang of her world. Let's face it this is poor little Anne Bronte's attempt to do Trisha- "My brother-is-an-over-indulged-drunken-lout". You get her total horror as the new neighbours try to get her smalll son tiddly & then get huffy about it. There is one glorious moment of camera work as the lens spins around Tara's head as her life disintegrates. Rupert G has fun being the irritating husband & the Bit of Rough, Toby Stephens beats up his love rivals with enthusiasm (I was trying to work out who he was & found he played Orsino in Nunn's Twelfth Night- totallly unrecognisable!)
Frankly although I'm normallly a purist I'm not going to reread the novel to spot the differences. This is fairly good cossie drama entertainment & is worth approaching as such.
