Far from the Madding Crowd (12A)
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg
3/5

THE AGRICULTURE and countryside of England have never looked as comely or as seductive as they do in Thomas Vinterberg’s new film adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel.

But how does it fare against John Schlesinger’s 1967 iconic interpretation, only re-released last month?

Although a solid and faithful reworking of Hardy’s novel, it lacks the tension, drama and sexual frisson of Schlesinger’s film, due in part to the miscasting of the lead characters.

One look at Matthias Schoenaerts as former sheep farmer Gabriel Oak and it is impossible to believe Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) would have had eyes for any other man, let alone Tom Sturridge as Sergeant Francis Troy, who lacks the charisma and ruthlessly sexy edge of Terence Stamp in Schlesinger’s version.

Mulligan gives us a Bathsheba who’s an independent and headstrong modern woman, determined to make it as a farm owner in a man’s world. That’s partly as Hardy depicted her, yet she isn’t the wilful and flirtatious girl he also described who manipulates men’s hearts and who undergoes a major learning curve. The beguiling Julie Christie epitomised that to perfection.

Michael Sheen fares better as the aloof and tightly wound wealthy middle-aged bachelor William Boldwood although his performance lacks the emotional nuance and gravitas of Peter Finch.

Hardy’s “Wessex” — shot in Dorset, Oxfordshire and Berkshire — looks gorgeous, due to Charlotte Bruus Christensen’s stunning cinematography and David Nicholls’s script points up the class disparities in 19th-century England, along with the harsh realities of rural life.

This love story of one woman and three very different men is a compelling and complex tale with a heroine years ahead of her time. But Vinterberg’s rendition, thought worthy, is a drawn-out and easily forgettable affair.

Best see Schlesinger’s seminal version instead.