BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

Brideshead Revisited is a quintessentially English film adapted from the novel written by Evelyn Waugh during WWII. A middle-class artist, Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) meets the flamboyant, Lord Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw) and his religious, aristocratic family, while the two are studying at Oxford in the 1920s. The two loveless young men fall in love but Ryder becomes more enamored with the family’s palatial home and Sebastian’s elder sister, Lady Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell). The romantic triangle is further complicated by war and religious (Catholic) fundamentalism. Picturesque scenes of Venice, Oxford University and the manor are combined with dialogue peppered with English wit making this love story and period piece spring to life with a warmth and vitality. (Natalie Salvo)