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Simply A Masterpiece

Absolutely Fantastic

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Biopic of Edwardian painter Carrington and her platonic relationship with author Lytton Strachey. Set mostly in pastoral England, during the Great War and afterward. Strachey and Carrington entice and embrace various male companions, seemingly to vent their own frustrated passions. Unlike almost every "creative artist" film I have ever watched, the angst and toil not shown at all. Emma Thompson, as Dora Carrington, is quite good in this. Also, during the first half of the film, she manages the trick of resembling a twenty year old. Sense And Sensibility was released the same year; while she portrayed another twenty year old, there she looked like a matronly forty year old. Jonathan Pryce as Strachey is brilliant.

This film is really about Lytton Strachey. His actions, thoughts and how he is the center of Carrington's life. The wrong target as biography is the least of this film's problems.It's a manipulative fraud in the depiction of Carrington as doting, caring, and, at the film's end, a tragic sort of lover. She was far from that as just two pages reveals in Leon Edel's book, "Bloomsbury A House of Lions" where he analyzes the Carrington/Strachey relationship using the same material that was the basis for this film.To say she was a confused and emotionally odd collection of forces is an understatement. There was a controlling and deceptive quality to Carrington's personality that made her very unpleasant. That is not the sort of character who is nice for a movie but the truth of it is that Carrington was not nice and this film continues to present her in a way that is not honest.Unfortunately mainstream movies cannot show the horrible faults of those that it elevates to biography status.The film as a production is very good and Jonathan Pryce as Strachey holds the work together. Carrington is an enigma because all the bad parts of her real self are removed.

What makes this tale pathetic and even horrifying is that it is true. If the characters central to this saga truly lived their lives in such wretched repression, compulsion, pretension, evasion, subterfuge, denial, longing, jealousy, confusion, suppression, depression, altruism, platonic hypocrisy and lack of courage - then God help them! If their entrapment was a reflection of the age they lived in, then they acquiesced to societal norms and were not the creative, artistic free spirits they pretended or aspired to be. If their ennui was a result of their own inability to live in truth, then their pose was a pretense. There is nothing to admire in this story. Carrington was a coward, Lytton a poseur, and their circle a bunch on namby pamby weaklings. To suicide for a love that never satisfied is the ultimate statement of low self-esteem.If you are a depressive, you may enjoy this movie. Those who live in joy may do better to skip it. Not just skip it, but run, screaming, very fast, in the opposite direction.

The words I write will not fully express how this movie made me feel. But I will do my best. This movie made me love Emma Thompson as an actress even more than before. Anyone with eyes cannot deny her talent but this just confirmed how awesome she is at her craft. I am surprised she was not recognized (BAFTA) for her efforts in this film. I don't want to write any spoilers but I would suggest one see this movie if they want the feeling of staring out the window on a rainy day wrapped up in a warm blanket thinking about the elation of finding love, confusion as it is revealed to be unrequited love and their demise from it! That sounds morbid but I would agree with the other review that the film is beautifully made.