DVDs:

	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Tara Fitzgerald, Cathy Murphy BBC Warner, 2008 average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The mysterious new tenant of Wildfell Hall finds herself the love-object of the communities young buck, Gilbert. Through their love story, the poor young woman's story unfolds to Gilbert. In the end, the past comes back to haunt her, and Gilbert must chase his lady love back to her wealthy family. A moment of truth between them hapens when he meets her carriage at the gate. Will she marry him?

It is profoundly interesting. Quite innovative storytelling in book form very pleasantly translated to the screen.

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Branwell couldn't have been THIS bad.

Branwell couldn't have been THIS bad.

In studying the Bronte sisters I find it universally accepted that any male bad-behavior demonstrated in their writings was based upon their experience with brother Branwell's decline and fall due to drink and drugs (opium/laudanum (noun circa 1603
any of various formerly used preparations of opium)). In 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall', his sister Anne has penned what has been called a ..."response to Emily's Wuthering Heights" showing, I suppose, the proper reaction to such bad behavior as exhibited by Heathcliff. In 'Tenant', Anne's heroine flees in horror and hides out, attempting to support herself and raise her son away from the monster she married. In this terrific production I felt there might have been some censoring of his bad acts but as I have not yet read Anne's novel I cannot be sure. It did raise some questions for me though. There is some dispute about the cause of Branwell's disgrace. Was he dismissed from Thorp Green for seducing his student's mother, as Gaskell believes? Or did he attempt to seduce (or even succeed in seducing) his student, the young boy he was tutoring? Or, as 'Tenant' suggests to me, did he seduce the boy into use of drink and/or drugs. I think this last guess to be the most likely and in viewing this production you may come to agree. Anne was there when he was disgraced. She must have heard all of what he'd done, though she would breathe no word of it. And all she would say was that it was "..undreamed of experience" of life.

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A good adaptation.

If you are a fan of the gentlile Austen productions then this may not be your cup of tea, the Bronte novels were always grittier and harsher, speaking of struggle and cruelty towards women of the time. This is not exactly a faithful representation, modern audience pleasing devices are used to give the story a hook. Sometimes this is necessary with Victorian novel adaptaions as issues which where then shocking now barely raise an eyebrow, but I think not so with Bronte work, the gritty realism of times past in their novels is actually more shocking now for it's utter cruelty. For my money, adding modern twists for hook value cheapens the work.
Nonetheless, Graves is excellent and steals the show, Stevens is perfect as the romantic hereo but Fitzgerald is just a little too harsh, cold and unconvinsing. I had little connection, empathy nor sympathy with her characterisation and yet read the novel and the opposite happens, it strikes me she is trying to inject too much of the modern woman into the role which takes a whole dimension away from the character and robs the story.
Still, worth a shot if only for the male leads.

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Dark but Enjoyable!

I saw this on masterpiece theater and immediately bought the book. Anne Bronte' was a woman before her time. She was outspoken at a time when women were always to be quiet and dutiful no matter what their circumstances.

The video keeps to the meat of the story which is dark and mysterious. The casting was top notch and the scene locations were wonderful as expected with a BBC production. The video and the book are must for any media collection.


reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9

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