After the tragic death of her husband and daughter, talented landscape gardener Mme De Barra ends up supervising the construction of water terraces in the gardens of Louis XIV's new palace at Versailles. She and master Gardener Andre de Notre are attracted to each other, but de Notre is married.
Alan Rickman directs (and stars as Louis), Kate Winslet is Mme de Barra, current flavour of the month Matthias Schoenaerts is de Notre, and the supporting cast includes Stanley Tucci, Helen McCrory and Jennifer Ehle, the film is handsomely mounted and beautifully photographed. And then come the "but"s.
The main "But" is "But why?" This seems to be the oddest subject to make a feature film about. Is it a romance? Well, yes, but only tangentially. Is it about gardening? Not really. Is it about the mores and manners of the French court? They are inevitably part of it but, again, not really. Is it a suspense thriller? No, but it has a touch of suspense about it. Is it an historical drama? Well, maybe but, if so, I doubt it is very accurate. The truth is that it doesn't comfortably fit into a genre – not that it necessarily ought to – and accordingly comes across as bitty and not cohesive. The second "But" is that its pace is, to be charitable, stately. To put it another way, "But it's slow and often boring."
There are a couple of pleasing scenes – one between Winslet and Rickman when she thinks he's the Head Gardener at Versailles, and one between Winslet and the women of the Court, which is rather touching.
Other than that, it looks lovely, McCrory is excellent and Tucci – who seems to have wandered in from a completely different film – is fantastic, and you may nod off from time to time.
Alan Rickman directs (and stars as Louis), Kate Winslet is Mme de Barra, current flavour of the month Matthias Schoenaerts is de Notre, and the supporting cast includes Stanley Tucci, Helen McCrory and Jennifer Ehle, the film is handsomely mounted and beautifully photographed. And then come the "but"s.
The main "But" is "But why?" This seems to be the oddest subject to make a feature film about. Is it a romance? Well, yes, but only tangentially. Is it about gardening? Not really. Is it about the mores and manners of the French court? They are inevitably part of it but, again, not really. Is it a suspense thriller? No, but it has a touch of suspense about it. Is it an historical drama? Well, maybe but, if so, I doubt it is very accurate. The truth is that it doesn't comfortably fit into a genre – not that it necessarily ought to – and accordingly comes across as bitty and not cohesive. The second "But" is that its pace is, to be charitable, stately. To put it another way, "But it's slow and often boring."
There are a couple of pleasing scenes – one between Winslet and Rickman when she thinks he's the Head Gardener at Versailles, and one between Winslet and the women of the Court, which is rather touching.
Other than that, it looks lovely, McCrory is excellent and Tucci – who seems to have wandered in from a completely different film – is fantastic, and you may nod off from time to time.