Change Your Image
AlStubbino
Reviews
Under the Greenwood Tree (2005)
Thomas Hardy would probably want his name off it.
No attempt has been made to echo Hardy's humorous and deeply affectionate appreciation of the English countryside and it's people around the time that he was born.
This is a trite and bland rendition of a novel that is rich and warm with a loving nostalgia for a way of life which the writer saw had disappeared into the Industrial Revolution.
The story has been chopped and changed into a melodramatic, Victorian love story and the script is banal and cliché-ridden.
The actors playing the rustic villagers do a good job but are let down by unimaginative direction, lighting and decor.
The young lovers are ' cardboard cut-out '.
The opportunity to make a wonderful ' English ' film has been passed over.
The work suffers from Television companies' desire to sell soap powder as cheaply as possible.