We’ve had some sharp words for remakes around here at Frock Flicks, especially literary remakes of perfectly lovely historical costume movies and TV shows. We get it, Hollywood and all the other media producers out there are risk-averse and prefer reusing a known story instead of branching out into something new. That’s why we’re neck-deep in Marvel movies and live-action Disney films right now. But the tendency goes way back, as this 2008 version of Brideshead Revisited proves. Like the 11-part TV miniseries from 1981, this is based on Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel. But being a two-hour movie, it obviously cuts out a lot of stuff from the novel that the series had space for. If that were the only problem with this film, then cool, let’s enjoy it for another pretty costume drama! Because the 1920s and 1930s frocks designed by Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh are lovely. However, I couldn’t help but compare the two versions in more ways than one.
Read all of this in-depth review of Brideshead Revisited (2008) here!
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Hayley Atwell looks so good in light gold. I remember she wore a similar colored dress in Agent Carter.
Well you can fault this adaptation for infidelity to the novel, but you certainly can’t fault it’s
Plot logic – if the lovely Hayley Atwell is in the vicinity, one would have difficulty noticing anyone else!