Wow. I only paid $3 to rent this movie, and I still want my money back. When I saw the preview for Vanity Fair, I thought it seemed like a good movie. I love period pieces, and the costumes and cast looked great. However, someone should have warned me that I wouldn't be able to follow the plot through the entire, slow-moving, 2 hour and 15 minute long film.
By reading reviews of Vanity Fair, I've gathered that the book was about a sassy and conniving young woman trying to get up the social ladder by any means possible. Director Mira Nair must have missed that part. To me (someone who hasn't read the book, nor has any idea of the plot of the book), the movie seemed to be about a peppy, young girl who was in love, but had a hard time being accepted in the "higher" crowds; however, that didn't stop her from trying her hardest and never giving up. When I read the comments on here I stopped and thought "WOAH WOAH, Rebecca was supposed to be conniving?!?!"
During the first hour or so, the movie was pretty good, but after that, everything slowed down tremendously. As more and more subplots and characters were thrown in, I got lost at least twice. There was no passing of time, it seemed. No one really aged, either. And what does India hafta do with anything? It seemed to show up a lot, but it seemed to me to just be something to make viewer's go "Ooh, that's exotic!"
The acting wasn't all that horrible. Witherspoon gave it a good try, but Nair's directions seemed to throw her totally off character. I have to admit, she did look very pretty, although I'm not sure how the orangey-blondey hair suits her. As for everyone else...Byrne and Purefoy were good, Byrne probably being the best of the whole cast. He played his character very nicely, and Purefoy also did well, as I could feel his emotions in many of his scenes. Everyone else was well casted, but all were so involved in complicated subplots, that I couldn't keep any straight.
Like I said before, the costumes and sets were very well done, and they pretty much earned the 2 stars. The rest of the movie was slow and dull, but at the same time, too choppy and complicated. My recommendation: if you insist on seeing it, rent it cheap somewhere, or wait till you can see it on HBO.
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