It is extremely difficult to condense such a lengthy and complex novel into the time available in a film (it's a great shame the BBC have not created a TV series in order to do the story justice). Clearly difficult decisions have to be made about what to include, what to leave out and how much "backstory" to explain. However if I had not read the book I would probably not have understood some important elements of the story.
It is also difficult to understand, or excuse, some of the changes made regarding characters. It's obvious why Roland is American rather than British, i.e. to appeal to US viewers, but why is the excellent American female character Lenora completely missing? which means also missing out the story line of Lenora and Blackadder following Maud and Roland to France. Sadly several other really interesting female characters are missing including Val (Roland's unhappy girlfriend), Beatrice Nest (the middle aged academic who guards Ellen Ash's diaries and warns Roland of Croppers planned crime) and Sabine (Christabel's French niece who's diaries tell can important chunk of the story of Ash and Christabel).
Despite some good efforts on the part of the actors involved the portrayals of characters that are included are all rather superficial. This makes it difficult for the viewer to feel any empathy or to be moved by their fate e.g. when Blanche commits suicide we don't really care because we don't really know who she is. Similarly the plot is so briefly sketched it doesn't engage the audience well e.g. as we only just about realise that Christabel is pregnant we don't particularly wonder what happened to the child.
Some of the photography and scenery is beautiful but very obvious. Not including the great storm of 1987 in the graveyard scene as A S Byatt did is inexplicable! Its as if the director was determined to remove anything interesting or dramatic.
It is also difficult to understand, or excuse, some of the changes made regarding characters. It's obvious why Roland is American rather than British, i.e. to appeal to US viewers, but why is the excellent American female character Lenora completely missing? which means also missing out the story line of Lenora and Blackadder following Maud and Roland to France. Sadly several other really interesting female characters are missing including Val (Roland's unhappy girlfriend), Beatrice Nest (the middle aged academic who guards Ellen Ash's diaries and warns Roland of Croppers planned crime) and Sabine (Christabel's French niece who's diaries tell can important chunk of the story of Ash and Christabel).
Despite some good efforts on the part of the actors involved the portrayals of characters that are included are all rather superficial. This makes it difficult for the viewer to feel any empathy or to be moved by their fate e.g. when Blanche commits suicide we don't really care because we don't really know who she is. Similarly the plot is so briefly sketched it doesn't engage the audience well e.g. as we only just about realise that Christabel is pregnant we don't particularly wonder what happened to the child.
Some of the photography and scenery is beautiful but very obvious. Not including the great storm of 1987 in the graveyard scene as A S Byatt did is inexplicable! Its as if the director was determined to remove anything interesting or dramatic.