Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4128 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-03-13
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Synopsis
George Eliot's classic tale of love, rejection and reconciliation in which Maggie Tulliver is a rare free spirit in Victorian society who has to look outside the love of her own family to find the companionship and life she craves.

Customer Reviews

Actors are let down by lamentable directing
What is so infuriating about this film is that I know Emily Watson is a capable actress, and I've always admired Bernard Hill. But both sink deep deep down into the abyss of mediocrity as the film progresses, debilitated by a director who apparently slept through the lectures on 'blocking' at film school, and doodled over his notes on speech. The dialogue here is so stilted, and the dialect so inconsistent, that it is difficult to believe it is being performed by a professional cast.

In the novel one of the most essential features of Maggie, the protagonist, is her wild, dark beauty - the catalyst for her suitors' love, and thus (along with Mr. Tulliver's 'pigheadedness') the greatest cause of tragedy in the novel. However I refuse to believe, whatever her acting capacities may be (not exhibited in this film), that Emily Watson's looks would lure a handsome man like Stephen (dismal actor), even if Philip's attraction to her is not altogether incredible. Worst of all is the fact that her eyes are blue, despite the fact that almost every time she describes Maggie, Eliot stresses the beguiling blackness of her eyes...

The plot is a thoroughly weeded down version of that of the novel, and contains several minor changes, which will jar in the mind of a purist, but doubtless pass by unnoticed to those unfamiliar with the novel. However it is essential in a film translation of Mill on the Floss, perhaps more than for any other Eliot novel, to portray in depth the psyche of the characters and the events that alter their lives, since without all this, the eminently depressing ending comes across as a grandiose and sentimental finale to an insubstantial story. Such is the case with this production.

My advice would be to spend your money instead on Polanski's magnificent production of Tess of the D'Urbevilles, a simillar, but considerably more profound and moving tale.

decent, workaday, enjoyable ; not outstanding
This is an enjoyable version of George Eliot's warm-hearted and melancholy novel. Visually it's good, with a lovely Dorlecote Mill and pleasant English rural scenes. Emily Watson is well cast as Maggie, Bernard Hill as her father, and all other characters are competently rendered. There is a very good visual likeness between the actors who play Maggie, Tom and Philip as children and their adult counterparts. The music is very appropriate - English, rural, yearning. But for all that, it never really seems to get off the ground. I don't really know why this is, because it is never bad, but it never seems to be really good either. Anyway, I enjoyed it, it held my interest, but I cannot give it a strong recommendation.

A Classic and Beautiful Story...
I saw this when it was first shown on the BBC 10 years ago, and although I am not usually attracted by 'period pieces' this one had me hooked. The story has haunted me ever since and I have been waiting for years to see this again. Then just a few months ago (Spring 2007) it was shown again on the BBC, but I missed the first half of it. Am I glad to see it is now available on DVD.

And as for our friend from France who was disappointed by the ending - you have obviously never known true love...