kijii
The movie starts in the present (Spring of 1943) when, as a British Army officer, Charles Ryder (Mathew Goode), actually 'revisits Brideshead,' and reflects on different points in his past at Brideshead (a huge palatial estate in England). So, there are several flashbacks to various points in Charles's reflective story. The story begins 20 years earlier when Charles leaves Paddington to study history at Oxford. Since he is from a middle-class background and feels as though he might be out of place at Oxford, he has his cousin show him how to fit in at Oxford. He soon takes up with a group of effete snobs, and through them, becomes good friends with Lord Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw) (the Boy-Man, Sebastian personifies the adjective "effete fop" to a tee). When Sebastian takes Charles to see his family's estate at Brideshead, Charles is awestruck with its beauty and vastness. After he leaves Brideshead and returns to his home in Paddington, he receives a telegram that Sebastian is seriously injured and needs his presence at Brideshead. When he arrives, he is picked up at the train station by Sebastian's sister, Julia (Haley Atwell). On the way back to the mansion, Julie tells him that Sebastian's injury, sustained while playing cricket, is a small crack in his foot bone.Charles's return to Brideshead begins the a long hedonistic summer of bliss, sans parents, for Charles and Sebastian--drinking, lovemaking, and swimming. This bliss comes to an end when Sebastian's mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) returns with Sebastian's older brother, Bridey (Ed Stoppard) and younger sister, Cordelia (Felicity Jones). At this point, Charles--a self-proclaimed atheist--learns how deeply this aristocratic family is influenced by the strict Catholicism, imposed on the family by Lady Marchamain: After her arrival, Sebastian and Julia cower in childlike obedience to their strong-willed mother. Unlike Sebastian and Julia, Bridey and Cordelia neither question nor fight their mother's strong religiosity. Thus, the need to scold them never seems to be necessary. The Brideshead location of the story is temporality broken when Sebastian and Julia are invited to spend time in Venice with their father, Lord Marchmain (Michael Gambon), and his mistress, Cara (Greta Scacchi). Lady Marchmain, fearful of Sebastian's need for alcoholic escapism, asks Charles to accompany him to Venice to look after him.Although Venice is not the paradise that Brideshead is for Charles, it is a demi-paradise: Charles is impressed by being in Venice and seeing its art and architecture, and feeling its ambiance. The Venice break in the story supplies us with a contrast as to how Charles sees Sebastian and Julia in different places and under different parents. In one scene, as Lord Marchmain is seated on a large couch between his children with his arms around both of them, he says to Charles "You must think of us as a family of monsters." Later, Charles watches Julia and Sebastian as they play like children on the beach-- free of any guilt. As the 'children' play on the beach, Charles has a chance to talk privately to Cara. She basically tells him how Lady Marchmain had suffocated the children under Catholicism. He then says to her, "But surely YOU are Catholic too." She then explains, "Yes, but, here here, people are not so much bothered by guilt as they are in England: Here, people just live their lives and go to confession for absolution from their sins." She then goes on to warn Charles that, although his affair with Sebastian is just a phase, it is far more serious to Sebastian.Although Venice is a place of freedom, it is also a place of mystery, full of twists, turns, dark corners, and cul-de-sacs. It is a place where one who is not used to dealing with freedom can easily become lost. In one scene, the family goes to a gay night street carnival. At this carnival of Venice, the music is loud, percussive, and rhythmic, and the people are costumed and masked. At one point, Julia gets lost in this pushing crowd and is diverted off into a wet tunnel—lost and confused. Charles follows her and kisses her while Sebastian looks on at a distance—realizing that Charles's love for him is no longer singular. (The idyllic relationship between Charles and Sebastian is broken and can never be the same again.) When they return to Brideshead, Lady Marchmain notices that Sebastian is not the same and wonders what had happened to make this change. She also warns Charles not to be misled about Julia: her future is already fixed, and marriage outside of the Faith is out of the question. Lady Marchmain has Sebastian followed at Oxford since his drinking is becoming worse. She also tries to have Charles watch him and cuts off his money to prevent him from drinking. When Charles gives Sebastian money to buy alcohol and he turns up drunk at Julia's Coming Out Gala—-an evening at which Lady Marchamain announces Julia's engagement to Rex Mattram (Jonathan Cake)—Sebastian embarrasses himself. Lady Marchmain then pulls Charles aside and tells him to leave Brideshead. At this point, Charles loses contact with Brideshead and Sebastian until sometime later when Lady Marchamain contacts Charles in Paddington and asks him to find Sebastian in Morocco and bring him back home. Charles tries to do this and fails.Charles gets married, has children, and enjoys a successful painting career with his jungle paintings after traveling to South American for two years. All of this period is a bit murky in the movie until he meets Julia again on a passenger ship. Since both of their marriages are shams by this time, they both decide to divorce and marry each other. However, fate (or God) steps in to prevent this "sinful union" to take place....
sksolomonb
What I get as the main theme from this remake of "Brideshead Revisited" (2008) is not the issue of the relationship between the two young college men. I believe the theme is the universal struggle between the material and the spiritual, the practical and the impractical, and the rich and the poor, all elements which were and are part of the situation created by the British class system. Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) has risen from the merchant class of England to attend Oxford, where his roommate is the son of an English lord. Inevitably, Charles is invited to spend a holiday at the roommate's ancestral home, where Charles falls in love with the roommate's twin sister (Hayley Atwell). When Charles makes known his feelings for the young lady, he is more or less led to believe the family considers himself unsuitable because he lacks the wealth and family background the Fylte family wants.I agree with another poster who noticed the Fylte family members seem cheap and decadent rather than wholesome and polished as they were in a previous film version that starred Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons. I too was disappointed in the Fylte family of the 2008 film being overly casual, flippant, and somewhat cheap and shallow in their remarks and behavior, but perhaps the director planned all this to show that the family was going downhill. It is Charles Ryder who minds his manners, shows respect and politeness, and conducts himself as a young gentleman should. Since the 1880s, many titled British and European families wanted their young people to marry American millionaires for their money, obviously, to maintain their estates. The American millionaires wanted to buy European titles to impress people. Acquiring more wealth does seem to be the aim of Lady Marchmain, the mistress of the Brideshead estate. As British society is coming near to the beginning of World War II, the class system is breaking down, and middle-class young people like Charles Ryder are improving themselves through education and work and are surviving because they know how to adapt and how to be resourceful.As the plot progresses, it is obvious the Marchmain family members do not suffer so much from a lack of money as from a lack of sound judgment, the right values, and common sense. It is painful to see how blind they are to the consequences of their choices, the changing society all around them, and the inevitable effect World War II will have on them.
Syl
The cast is first rate with Emma Thompson (who should be made a Dame by now) and Sir Michael Gambon as the Lady and Lord of Brideshead. Their children include Bridie (Ed Stoppard plays him); Sebastian (Ben Wilshaw plays him beautifully, a tormented soul); Hayley Atwell (plays Julia); and there is Cordelia (forgotten the name of the actress who plays her). Anyway, Brideshead is a beautiful but haunting place where this family who is also devoutly Roman Catholic with a strict mother played by Thompson. She is disappointed that her children Sebastian (a homosexual and alcoholic) and Julia (promised to marry a Catholic) are disappointments to her and her faith. As we see in the Venice, Italy scenes, not all Catholics are faithful and staunch as the Lady Marchmain. In fact, Lord Marchmain lives in sin in Venice with his Italian mistress Carla (played by Greta Scacchi). All of this involves a newcomer Charles Ryder, an artist at Oxford University, who befriends Sebastian. He becomes his friend and companion. I don't know about their relationship apart from the kiss. But Charles becomes enamored with Brideshead and Julia, Sebastian's beautiful sister. They have an unusual love triangle. Of all the characters in the film, I felt the worst for Sebastian. Emma Thompson did deserve an Oscar nomination for her performance in this role. It's worth seeing if you're a big Thompson fan.
