Big Picture Big Sound

Bride and Prejudice

It's the 1870s, and Bathsheba Everdene has a problem: There are three different men who deem her quality wife material and she is the strong, independent type. A common thing nowadays but not back in Victorian England when women were treated more like property than partners. They seemed as controlled by society as their frames squeezed into corsets.

Bathsheba (Carey Mulligan) does her own thing though, and she is far from the crowd that conforms at first opportunity. She is also smart and smart-alecky, much like Elizabeth Bennet and half the cast of "Downton Abbey", and most British female characters in stories set around this time period. But really, that's why we like these movies, isn't it? Who wants to watch a bunch of stuffy, boring snobs sitting and scowling and staring at the lawn? If it's fiction, why not make it (predictable) fun.

Thomas Hardy penned "Far from the Madding Crowd" in 1874 and it was his first major literary hit. There's also a prior version of the film released in 1967. Written by David Nicholls, who did the delightful "Starter for Ten," and directed by equally skilled Thomas Vinterberg ("The Hunt"), the movie should be a real doozy. It's perfectly pleasant and elevated by a strong performance by Mulligan, but it's not likely to stick in people's memories. In 10 years, they'll still be talking about Mr. Darcy, not Mr. Oak.

Played by Matthias Schoenaerts, Gabriel Oak is the guy that Bathsheba should clearly love. He's the Jim to her Pam. But he's a down-on-his-luck sheep farmer, and the scene of the herd flocking toward their doom is truly upsetting. She falls upon a hefty inheritance and winds up running a fancy farm and hiring him as a shepherd. They're cute because they call each other out on their crap, they have a soulful connection, and they're both stubborn and determined. Still, she doesn't really see him.

Other suitors include wealthy widower William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) as an older man looking to take care of her - which she doesn't want - and a bad-boy, troubled soldier named Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge) - which she does kind of want. Bathsheba is a complicated character, with flaws and moxie aplenty. She's not always right yet she's always interesting to watch. But she declares "I shall astonish you all" early in the film, and this promise isn't fully kept.