Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I love Edith Whartion, the Gilded Age, and BBC productions. This film should have been an ideal purchase for me. Instead it was a raving disappointment. The first third or so of the series remained fairly close to the book, but the remainder mutated into soap opera sensationalism nonsense. After watching this horror of a 5 hour series, I did a search online and found an interview with the screenplay authoress who admitted to tweaking the novel's plotlines to add interest and allow for the sensibilities of a modern audience. In this particular miniseries liberties were taken with the storyline that completely affected the original intent and tone of the story. Julius, Nan's husband, is portrayed as a bisexual, adulterer, and a marital rapist. Watching Julius's characterisation unfold was like witnessing a train wreck. Nan and Julius's marriage was supposed to be the story of how a relationship fails when two good people, very young and not knowing themselves well, rush into marriage and discover disillusionment. Instead BBC treated its audience to Hollywoodized trite depicting Nan as a wronged wife ill-treated by a remote husband. There was also something horribly off about the portrayal of Laura Testvalley's friendship with Nan. I love period pieces and I understand that social customs regarding intimate friendships in the past might seem TOO intimate at times to us strait-laced Americans, but the characters' scenes started creeping me out. The mood of the scenes struck me as more romantic than friendly/sisterly/intimate. In a way it was almost a relief when Julius was "outed" because I almost expected the two women to fall in love. The one bright spot in this wreck of Wharton was Greg Wise (Guy Thwaite) who played his character with complete conviction and looked gorgeous beyond belief in white tie ensembles. It probably helped that Thwaite was one of the few characters allowed to retain the core Wharton penned him in to begin with. I felt like most of the other characters were strangers. The series has some nice sets and locations and costumes appear in all their Gilded Age glory. Americans can't help but loathe the British aristocracy and their mercenery desire to marry money and then refuse to support their wives since it's beneath them to work. If you're looking for a faithful or even reasonably faithful production of the novel, though, you'll only be disappointed.