Please don't spend money on this.

One of my all time favorites.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Not a bad film at all. Unfortunately it doesn't bring anything new to the table. Without really making anything wrong, it sticks to the story line, the cast has no surprises and its decently played it still doesn't make it. It is like a cover of a really great song. If the artist doesn't put its own mark on it it will still be a copy, and as such always fail to be better than the original It is like a pale copy of the original masterpiece. If you want to see brilliance, the original Brideshead of 1981 with Anthony Andrews http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000762/?ref_=tt_cl_t6 and Jeremy Irons http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000460/?ref_=tt_cl_t1 is the one to watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083390/

I saw this film on release and turned away. The miniseries was too powerful still to accept another rendition.I revisited this Brideshead today and was moved powerfully. A briefer visit to be sure. Harder edges sharpened by that familiar and glorious house. Lord and Lady Marchmain more ruthlessly struck with far fewer strokes (bravo both). Julia in Venice and Charles' failure to understand or heed Cara's warning to "tread carefully" creating a more personal responsibility for the devastation of Sebastian.How much time do you have for a visit? For a full day outing go to the miniseries. Having so said, I will certainly take a side trip to this shorter gem again.

I enjoyed both the book and the 13-hr miniseries. In fact, the latter was one of the best things I have ever seen. I know you can't capture everything in 2 hours that you do in 13 hours but what I did see was a major disappointment. The 13-hr version was almost a verbatim enactment of the book. This version uses the same house (Castle Howard) and a similar plot line but that's it. So many elements are changed and I only remember a couple lines from the book. Everything else is de novo. e.g. bringing Julia to Venice so she and Charles could fall in love. In the other version, they did not fall in love until on the ship. With such a short movie, why did they feel they had to tell the tale in flashbacks like the original? And the original movie had a somewhat upbeat ending - not so with this version. While the actors in this movie were OK, they were NOT Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Clair Bloom, Sir Laurence Olivier, or John Gielgud. With the original, I bonded with all the characters and did not want the series to end: no problem with this one ending. My wife found it equally hard to follow and all of her questions were answered starting with, "In the original series..."

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.