Brideshead Revisited
Miramax Films | Release Date: July 25, 2008
5.7
USER SCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Ratings
USER RATING DISTRIBUTION
Positive:
19
Mixed:
9
Negative:
9
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User Reviews

User scoreBy dateMost helpful
7
SebZ.Oct 5, 2008
Emma Thompson is absolutely amazing and the story of forbidden love and loss of innocence is beautifully told.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
1
BobbieAug 10, 2008
Beautiful scenery. As for the rest of the movie it was a waste of time. No character development. Yes, we understand the mother was overbearing and the children hated her. So why not leave! Just awful.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
5
DavidW.Aug 1, 2008
Brideshead was an ITV tv series, not BBC, as assumed by Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor. Hay, imagine it, little old UK has more than one TV station, who would have thought??
0 of 0 users found this helpful
10
BradKAug 10, 2008
The performances are spot on and the design and cinematography are reason alone to see the film.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
0
DuragoAug 8, 2008
Awful and boring. A waste of time.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
5
TanyaMAug 8, 2008
Mediocre at best. The whole film seemed just a jumble of loose "ideas" (Catholicism, bad), never developing even a single aspect of the characters or the story into anything you could hold onto or care about. Even Emma Thompson couldn't Mediocre at best. The whole film seemed just a jumble of loose "ideas" (Catholicism, bad), never developing even a single aspect of the characters or the story into anything you could hold onto or care about. Even Emma Thompson couldn't carry the film since she was hardly in it! Her character was set up to be this harrowing, over-bearing and infinitely damaging mother to her children, and then it was never paid off. All the characters sure blathered on about it, but we never got to see those relationships for ourselves. Yeh, that pretty much pinpoints the whole problem...lots and lots of talk about things (alcoholism, being gay, loosing children, bad marriages, religion, painting in the jungle ha!), but never any witnessing of those things for ourselves. All "talk" and no "do" equals boring. But, on the positive side, I felt like having popcorn and a diet coke...so that was a plus.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
6
WaughmongerSep 30, 2008
If only Evelyn Waugh had been born 50 years later, so he could have been around to take advice from "Jackson" on plot development and "Bobbie" on characterization. That aside, the film is a disappointing adaption of a book that is If only Evelyn Waugh had been born 50 years later, so he could have been around to take advice from "Jackson" on plot development and "Bobbie" on characterization. That aside, the film is a disappointing adaption of a book that is structurally better suited to a television serial, as demonstrated by comparison with the classic ITV version.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
6
JayH.Jan 8, 2009
Talky but exquisitely produced. Excellent costumes, art direction and cinematography. The acting is good as well, the director has a good style.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
5
ChadS.Aug 11, 2008
More often than not, fanboys get the comic book adaptation they wanted; the most notable exception being, it goes without saying, Joel Schumacher's "Batman and Robin"(for years, George Clooney would go on late night-talk shows and say, More often than not, fanboys get the comic book adaptation they wanted; the most notable exception being, it goes without saying, Joel Schumacher's "Batman and Robin"(for years, George Clooney would go on late night-talk shows and say, "I killed Batman."). There was no blog for William Makepeace Thackeray fans to prevent Mira Nair from integrating William Makepiece Thackeray's "Vanity Fair", or a cyberspace to speak of when Jane champion created a thoroughly modern Isabel for her take on Henry James' "The Portrait of a Lady". Which brings us to Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" and the agenda of the filmmaker to malign the Catholic faith. God doesn't hate Sebastian(Ben Whishaw) and force him into exile; it's how Lady Marchmain(Emma Thompson) uses God as a weapon through her own interpretation of the good book's bylaws. The bizarre love triangle, in particular, the line that connects Charles(Matthew Goode) to Sebastian is what drives "Brideshead Revisited" early on. Does Charles romance another man with complete emotional detachment for the right to hobnob with the filthy rich in their palacial estates? The line between Charles has its own intrigue, too. Maybe the godless Oxford student chases after Julia(Hayley Atwell) since he recognizes that the siblings' mother customized her god to call his relationship with Sebastian into question. "Brideshead Revisited" feels both truncated and overlong after Lady Marchmain throws Charles out of Brideshead. We're barely acquainted with Charles' wife when Julia re-enters his life. Not nearly enough time is spent on his rise in the art world. The same problem applies to Lady Marchmain's realization that she was too stringent with her children. She just tells us. The film doesn't dramatize what led her to this realization.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
1
ScottS.Aug 11, 2008
Choppy and disjointed, and painfully long.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
2
CarolA.Aug 7, 2008
This movie was an abomination. It was soooooo long and boring. The story made absolutely no sense. It went on and on and could have ended a million times. Just a waste of money and time.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
5
pascaladolphejeanJan 16, 2009
Although the production values are generally good, there is a clobber-you-over-the-head quality to the screen adaptation and some of the performances that make the film far inferior to the mini-series. Marginalizing the theme of old-world Although the production values are generally good, there is a clobber-you-over-the-head quality to the screen adaptation and some of the performances that make the film far inferior to the mini-series. Marginalizing the theme of old-world Catholicism in the lives of the characters was also a major mistake. At best, this version is a watchable costume drama, and not much more. Too bad.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful
9
MatthewM.Jan 31, 2009
Fantastic period piece. A beautifully tragic story where religion, dying victorian values, social ambition, and a vastly changing world in the early 20th century are at odds.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
6
RobertI.Mar 1, 2009
Workmanlike, lush, but lacking tooth. Is our generation simply more insipid than the original, or addicted to Technicolor? Give us 8 more hours, in black and white.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
9
MauriceAug 14, 2008
May be not as great as the TV series, but it is still a very good movie. Great performances, particularly Emma Thompson. Beautiful cinematography and art direction.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
0
FantasyAug 14, 2008
Someone gave this a perfect score of 10 like in Gone With The Wind? OK my score is zero because this is a snoozefest of epic proportions. There is nothing to like about this movie as the story is disjointed and way too long. Boring.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
0
JacksonAug 19, 2008
Terrible long drawn out movie. The story went nowhere. Can't believe anyone liked this trash.
0 of 0 users found this helpful
7
DawdlingPoetNov 25, 2021
As gentle period dramas focussing on social/class issues go, this one is perfectly ok, with some good performances and settings. Its not a film I found especially remarkable or memorable but its not utterly uninteresting and I quite likedAs gentle period dramas focussing on social/class issues go, this one is perfectly ok, with some good performances and settings. Its not a film I found especially remarkable or memorable but its not utterly uninteresting and I quite liked some of the classical music played and so on. I thought Ben Whishaw gave a particularly good performance and I'd say this is a decent enough Sunday evening type period/costume drama film, set in the 1940s. Its somewhat immersive, if not overly memorable as such but I didn't feel I was entirely bored, which is probably the main thing. I couldn't help but think what 'first world problems' were mentioned during the film - that's a given, of course. It does, however, become somewhat poignant after a while. I should point out that at times characters speak quite quietly (softly spoken) - whispering, just about, so if you have issues hearing then you may find it hard to follow in full, which could be frustrating. Religion is also mentioned, which may or may not bother people.

There is some dialogue that I thought was quite good, so overall I would recommend this pleasant enough watch, yes.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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