Best movie of this year hands down!

Touches You

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

We could all find endings to novels that we would like to change,but this is to set us up as a better writer than the author.Contains possible Spoilers:~The whole point of Daniel Deronda is to contrast the unloving Grandcourt and Gwendolynwith the loving Daniel & Mirah.It is also to show how the upper class society of England at the time was empty corrupt and without feeling. Where the oppressed,poor and faithful Jewish society was the opposite.To have ended the novel by putting Daniel with Gewndolyn would have completely ruined the whole point of the story. The point being Gwendolyn starts to see her redemption by not having Daniel(or anything she wanted) and Daniel realising just how shallow and selfish Gwendolyn was. As a subplot Daniel finds his Jewish ancestry and realises just why and what feelings he had for Mirah. Change the end to Daniel with Gwendolyn and you completely destroy the whole construction of the plot,and as such there is no novel. We cannot always have happy endings (in a novel as in life) and we try and alter them to our peril. Do we really think we are a greater author than George Eliot? Perhaps we should try changing Dickens,Hardy or Gaskell? If you answer yes then your ego is bigger than your intelligence.

Kudos to Andrew Davies who continues to spook me out with his grasp on the mores and idiosyncrasies of English society of yesteryear. (I think he is secretly utilizing a time machine) The casting is flawless; Bonneville's character is almost intrinsically wicked. Although he illustrates that he is a man who understands financial investments, his dearth of understanding of the necessity of genuine emotional investments becomes his undoing. It may seem simplistic, but one hand does wash the other.....I expected Scacci's spurned mistress to have more sympathy for one as blinded as indeed she was when still young and alluring. Greta is formidable as a woman facing the aspect of Grandcourt's ultimate disloyalty, as she herself was disloyal to a spouse who must have trusted her to some degree... Daniel Deronda himself is much more than highly likable; he is a hero of the first order......This film is truly worth watching.

The title gave me no clue to the absorbing romantic Victorian drama that was to follow. Said to be George Eliot's last great novel, it exposes in no uncertain manner the pitiful life of the Victorian woman, hardly more than an obedient slave and forced to respond to her husband's demands.Hugh Bonneville stands out among the excellent cast as the nasty Henleigh Grandcourt who revels in watching women squirm under his aristocratic power and Romola Garai is perfect as Gwendolen who marries him, not for love, but to save her family from economic ruin.Hugh Dancy in the title role of Daniel has immediate appeal with his handsome good looks touched with both shyness and sadness as he ponders over his past life and the unsolved mystery of his mother's identity.After Daniel saves a woman from drowning in a river, the story takes an unexpected turn and concentrates on the Jewish problem of a permanent homeland. Daniel is much attracted to the woman he has saved and through his efforts to help her some mysteries of his own life are revealed to him.The sets, costumes and photography capture exquisitely life in England in the Victorian era. Quite apart from the romantic drama, there is much to ponder over in this story. Thankfully to-day women have gained a degree of independence, though not entirely, and the Jews are still uncertain about the boundaries of their homeland.I can recommend this film which is in 4 parts. Set aside a full evening to watch the story unfold. It's quite long (205 minutes) but a brilliant production.

"Daniel Deronda" is a worthy knock-off of George Eliot's novel of the same name which tells of a young Englishman's search for meaning and purpose while enjoying a life of property and leisure. As with most Victorian period costume dramas out of the UK, this film is sumptuously appointed and well represented by the players and places as it meanders through the usual multiplicity of relationships from aristocrat to pauper with a Jewish thread for distinction. "Daniel Deronda" conjures a range of characters from a stoic martinet to a spoiled beauty to an attractive Jewess and beyond with love, greed, envy, guile, and death all swirling around the Deronda character as it manages to sort itself out with a coherent story arc and a more or less happy ending. A "should see" for anyone into Victorian flicks. (B)