“I’d hate to become some man’s property,” the forthright
Bathsheba Everdene says to her gently spurned suitor.
It’s 1870 in Dorset, England, and despite her penniless status, Bathsheba
values her independence above everything, a nontraditional mindset that will
serve her well when an unexpected inheritance bequeaths her a large farm.
But over the
course of Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s earthy
yet swooning adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd,” our
heroine will learn that even financial security won’t assuage Victorian
society’s demands that she snag a husband. In fact, Bathsheba finds that men
are now drawn to her free spirit as well as her money, but usually they’re
looking to control both.
Carey
Mulligan (2013’s “The Great Gatsby”) stars as Bathsheba, her playful smirk
doing nothing to hide the obvious gratification she gets out of rebelling
against patriarchal notions. And though Bathsheba makes gradual headway in
matters of business, the romance part is trickier. Despite an unmistakable spark with quiet shepherd Gabriel
Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), Bathsheba rejects his
impulsive proposal, and then their reversals of fortune render a match
unsuitable anyway. (That hand-over-the-mouth sheep scene is positively
gut-wrenching.) The humorless but wealthy William Boldwood
(Michael Sheen) also sets his cap on Bathsheba — his middle-aged practicality
positing the union as a transaction between equals, but we soon sense that he’s
secretly trying to protect his heart.
Bathsheba
announces early on that the only way she’ll marry is if the man can tame her — the true meaning of which becomes clear when the
dashing Sergeant Francis Troy (Tom Sturridge) shows up, unsubtly thrusting his
sword through the air at a horned-up Bathsheba. Add a pinch of secrets, a
smattering of coincidence, and a soupรงon of things unsaid, and “Far from the
Madding Crowd” unfolds more as a satisfying frock-flick romance than a portrait
of a headstrong woman railing against male convention.
But it’s a
little deceptive. Like an Austen leading lady, Bathsheba is more concerned with
what she wants for herself than what others expect or require, and not for
nothing is the “Hunger Games” protagonist named after her.
Vinterberg, you may remember, co-founded the barebones
filmmaking manifesto Dogme 95 (check out his
excellent 1998 drama “Festen,” also known as Dogme #1), though he hasn’t had much success with
English-language films until now.
“Far from
the Madding Crowd” is exquisitely crafted, from the rustic art direction and
Craig Armstrong’s gorgeously evocative score, to David Nicholls’ knowing
script. But it’s the luscious cinematography by Charlotte Bruus
Christensen — she also shot Vinterberg’s 2012 Oscar
nominee “The Hunt” — that sets the film’s vaguely erotic tone, with magic-hour
golds, pastoral greens, and carnal scarlets.
And the
performances are nearly impeccable, with only Sturridge striking a false note
as the underdeveloped Troy, who comes across as little more than a plot device.
The stellar Sheen almost walks off with the film as the halting, melancholy Boldwood, his delicate desperation hinting at both a sad
past and the fear of a lonely future.
Belgium’s Schoenaerts is a sloe-eyed dreamboat, with a laconic
intensity that punctuates his infrequent sentences. He’s more than matched by
the gifted Mulligan, who beautifully embodies Bathsheba’s demands and desires
while doing feisty justice to one of literature’s great feminists.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2015.
