Note:
The following review is written by someone who does not read pastoral romance novels from the 1870s very often and is so ignorant that for a brief moment I thought the novel Far from the Maddening Crowd was written by Tom Hardy. As in Mad Max and Dark Knight’s Bane. It was, in fact, written by Thomas Hardy, an English novelist and poet who died in 1920. I bring up this lack of culture as I am sure that this obtuseness will be apparent and I believe that transparency is the key to visibility.
The Review:
Bathsheba Everdene has got it going on. She’s smart, independent, rich and (as played by the wonderful Carey Mulligan) effervescently beautiful. During the first hour of Far from the Maddening Crowd, Bathsheba can’t even enter a room without some poor chap falling madly in love with her.
First she hooks Mr. Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a humble farmer who becomes instantly devoted. Then there is Mr. Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a sad and lonely man-of-means who goes from smitten to deep desire in about five seconds after receiving an ill-conceived valentine from Miss Everdene. Both men ask for her hand in marriage. Both men are denied.
So this seems like standard mushy-lovey stuff at this point. The Love Triangle. Twilight and The Hunger Games have taught the masses this scenario well in the last few years. And, yes, Katniss from The Hunger Games got her surname of Everdeen from our Bathsheba. Neither knows what the heart wants…. So at this point in the story I’m about to “pick a team” when all of the sudden ANOTHER mustachioed gentleman shows up looking to sweep the lovely Bathy off her feet.
What???? We just went from a Love Triangle to a Love Square! Unprecedented. One woman, three guys and now picking a team is tough stuff. It was when the third man arrived, a Mister Sergeant Troy (Tom Sturridge looking creepily like Terrence Stamp who played the role in the 1967 version), that I realized that Far from the Maddening Crowd is sort of like a pornography movie with no sex in it. Everywhere this woman goes, she has men panting. There is even a scene where Troy takes her out into the woods and swings his sword at her. Literally. But what a thinly veiled metaphor.
The film is loaded with melodrama but director Thomas Vinterberg handles the material well. He does not look to update or “re-imagine” but let’s Mulligan tell us the inner struggles of our heroine with her smiles and tears. There is an innocent sweetness that makes it easy to transport yourself to this more romantic time.
Besides Mulligan, Michael Sheen does a fantastic job making Boldwood lovingly pathetic. He brings most of the film’s laughs and breathes life into a story that could easily have become too stuffy.
At its core, Far from the Maddening Crowd not only offers us a portrait of strong woman struggling to find respect and love in 1870s England but it is also an important work because it dealt with class at a time when farm hands and hard laborers where never really portrayed as “real” people. It is these two aspects that make this novel an important work.
As a film, it is a solid period piece that delivers romance and grandeur. By the way, I’m “Team Oak”. No doubt about it.