Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The most appealing thing about this movie is the sound. Much of the movie takes place in a fine old mansion. The sound captures that. There is usually lots going on off screen left and right. The dialogue is crystal clear. I found myself putting more attention into the sound than the visuals.This is a story about Britons of privilege in the 1920s. The movie captures the music, the costumes, the furnishings in a sumptuous way. The actor who plays the matriarch brilliantly exudes haughty disdain while technically being perfectly polite.The two lead characters have a gay relationship that never seems to go beyond a bit of flirtation. I found that simply not believable. It was a tease.The main theme of the movie is the way the Catholic church utterly ruins the lives of three people, who take religion far too seriously. According to the Catholics, this life is worthless, mere preparation for the hereafter. The preoccupation with sin hamstrings all three so they waste their lives worrying about petty rules. The Church teaches that Catholics are superior to everyone else, and blocks love with non- Catholics. Catholics shun anyone who breaks one of their rules, and feel smugly superior about doing that.Finally Catholics force a Latin death ceremony on an atheist who strenuously objects.The movie a bit of a downer as we watch one of the leads kill himself slowly with alcoholism.

Even though the music, photography, set design and acting are very good, this movie was a disappointment for me. The plot has been skillfully manipulated. In this version, Julia's character has become a victim of a distorted protestant vision of catholic faith, and Lady Flyte is just a selfish, self-centered and fanatic mother. All the beauty, the hope and the humanity of the original is lost, leaving just tortured and melancholic characters who live a sort of impossible love. Of course there is no references to God's grace, personal conscience, repentance, charity, duty or the importance of the family. At the end, it remains only an obscure pseudo-reflection on guilt, that is supposed to be related with the scriptwriters' deformed idea of what the Roman Catholic religion is.

"Sebastian's gone missing. He's in a house in Morocco…" It's not only because of lines like this that I think Brideshead Revisited is one of the worst films I have seen in quite a long time…but it doesn't help. You know a film is in trouble when actors of the calibre of Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon absolutely stink up the screen. Thompson is perfectly (and unintentionally) grotesque as Lady Marchmain. What on earth were the scriptwriters and director thinking? The film is based, allegedly, on the Evelyn Waugh novel of the same name (which was made into a truly wonderful TV series in the early '80s), but takes such liberties with the plot that poor old Evelyn must be spinning in his grave. The element of divine grace which informs the novel is simply absent (albeit replaced, to a minor extent, by an entirely spurious and dramatically inexplicable sense of guilt on the part of Charles Ryder, the main character); and even the Catholicism whose tenets direct, consciously or otherwise, the life trajectories of many of the main characters is largely reduced to parody. What else? Sebastian and Julia Flyte are spectacularly miscast; the actor playing Charles' father (the normally reliable Patrick Malahide) badly misjudges the tone of his character; Brideshead, Sebastian's brother, rather brought to mind Michael Palin portraying a WWI German flying ace; the whole emotional driving force of the novel (Charles' graduation from his early infatuation with Sebastian to his more mature love for Julia) is shot to pieces by the asinine attempt to portray, quite early in the film, a kind of rivalry for Charles' affections between Julia and Sebastian. As someone who loves both the novel and the TV series deeply, I found this movie truly revolting. Shouldn't have been made. Don't see it.

The cast is first rate with Emma Thompson (who should be made a Dame by now) and Sir Michael Gambon as the Lady and Lord of Brideshead. Their children include Bridie (Ed Stoppard plays him); Sebastian (Ben Wilshaw plays him beautifully, a tormented soul); Hayley Atwell (plays Julia); and there is Cordelia (forgotten the name of the actress who plays her). Anyway, Brideshead is a beautiful but haunting place where this family who is also devoutly Roman Catholic with a strict mother played by Thompson. She is disappointed that her children Sebastian (a homosexual and alcoholic) and Julia (promised to marry a Catholic) are disappointments to her and her faith. As we see in the Venice, Italy scenes, not all Catholics are faithful and staunch as the Lady Marchmain. In fact, Lord Marchmain lives in sin in Venice with his Italian mistress Carla (played by Greta Scacchi). All of this involves a newcomer Charles Ryder, an artist at Oxford University, who befriends Sebastian. He becomes his friend and companion. I don't know about their relationship apart from the kiss. But Charles becomes enamored with Brideshead and Julia, Sebastian's beautiful sister. They have an unusual love triangle. Of all the characters in the film, I felt the worst for Sebastian. Emma Thompson did deserve an Oscar nomination for her performance in this role. It's worth seeing if you're a big Thompson fan.