Crowd pleaser

Firstly, a message to all Marvel fanboys: there is nothing for you here. Nothing. No CGI, no endless battles, no superheroines with their boobs on show, no deafening soundtrack and no Andy Serkis popping up for reasons I still can’t fathom, and don’t care to fathom anyhow. So go away and heckle someone else, unless you want to stick around, in which case, be warned: this is a proper film with proper acting and it even comes with a proper story that makes proper sense. Some films are like this, you know.

This adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel is directed by Thomas Vinterberg, scripted by David Nicholls, and stars Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts, the hunk du jour who is everywhere at present. (He was the hot Nazi in Suite Française and the hot gardener in A Little Chaos and now he’s a hot shepherd; it must be that special sort of hotness capable of dealing with any occupation thrown at it.) Inevitably, this will be compared with John Schlesinger’s 1967 version, starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, and there will be dark mutterings, but can someone not have another go, even after nearly half a century? And why do they have to be in competition? Can’t they coexist? There is only one question worth asking here and it is: does this work in and of itself? And now, having asked the question, I will answer it: yes. It has its flaws — the character of Fanny Robin is underwritten; it is so truncated that even the famous fairground scene has been ejected — but I always felt involved. Odd, when you consider no Russian-accented villains intent on global domination are featured, but some films are like this too.