Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've seen this in England, and I can faithfully vouch for the fact that yes, the first two volumes of Mervyn Peake's masterpiece trilogy have finally been accorded their due on the screen. I should start by warning fans of the novels that the Gormenghast realized here is much prettier than you would expect; perhaps the film's producers were worried that a vision of the giant castle and its environs as decayed and yellowed as Peake imagined might be too offputting to anyone but fans of the novels? As a result, Gormenghast is slightly too pretty at times to convey the sense of Gothic dissolution Peake intended: even the campsite of the carvers seems gussied up in pretty green decor. And in the central role of Steerpike Jonathan Rhys-Meyers looks smashing and works hard, but fails to turn in the truly bravura performance the part requires (in part because he lacks tremendous physical presence, despite his sneering beauty).
On the other hand, so much is given to us in this version that it would be churlish to complain. Celia Imrie steals the show as the brutally abstract and terrifyingly towering Countess of Groan: she has both the presence and the ability to play the role. The great Fiona Shaw transforms herself exactly into Peake's sketches of Irma Prunesquallor, and Zoe Wanamaker and Lynsey Baxter do something very original and believable as Titus's half-witted and murderous aunts. The special effects are at times jawdropping, and at times the director allows for the off-kilter camera angles--and yes, even the Gothic atmnosphere otherwise missing--that brings you back to Peake's original vision (the library sequence is particularly smashing). This is the kind of adaptation that, even with its few flaws, one would never have dared hope to have seen.
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A charismatically evil kitchen boy threatens the power of a thousand-year-old dynasty in this fantastic presentation of the classic novels by Mervyn Peake.
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