The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Buy This Item The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by BBC Warner  Available from Amazon  $9.99  on 8-28-2008     The BBC adaptation of Anne Bronte's moral tale <I>The Tenant of Wildfell Hall</I> will be a delight to those who revel in classics brought to the screen. Tara Fitzgerald stars as Helen Graham, a secretive woman who seeks independence for herself and her son from her cruel husband, Arthur Huntingdon. Huntingdon, a rake taken with women and drink, is played to perfection by Rupert Graves, believable as both the young lover who seduces Helen and as the depraved and brutish man he becomes. Toby Stephens is Gilbert Markham, the suspicious yet adoring yeoman farmer smitten with the supposed widow. The scenery and costumes of this period piece are lush, although the use of flashback as a narrative device is at times jarring. This tale is darker than the Jane Austen adaptations that BBC audiences are used to, yet the two-part film has an ending satisfying enough for even the most cynical of romantics. <I>--Jenny Brown</I> Reader Reviews Anytime a movie is made from a classic, the people who have no taste of their own but want to appear as if they do, praise the movie to the skies. The fact is that at one-and-a-half hours, this could have been an okay, three-star movie. At two-and-a-half hours, it is excruciating, like sitting through a sermon that drones on and on, making the same point over and over again. In spite of the suggestion of grand houses, this gives every indication of being a very low-budget production: close-ups of the same few rooms, none of the sweep and pagentry of other period movies, minimal music, adequate but not great photography. The location shots of the moors (few in number) are the visual highlight of this WGBH effort. Bottom line: if you're still curious, talk your local library into getting it, then borrow it free.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Available from Amazon Price: $9.99 Updated on 8-28-2008.

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