DVD REVIEW

Far From The Madding Crowd

The year is 1870 and Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) lives with her aunt on the adjacent property to handsome sheep farmer, Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts). She rebuffs his heartfelt advances, telling a crestfallen Gabriel, ''I don't want a husband. I don't want to be some man's property''. Soon after, Bathsheba inherits her uncle's vast estate and defies expectation to turn around the ailing farm, aided by her companion Liddy (Jessica Barden).

Gabriel, who has fallen on hard times, is hired by Bathsheba as the estate's shepherd and continues to pine for her from afar.

Meanwhile, emotionally repressed and wealthy farmer William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) makes his feelings for Bathsheba known, but her head is turned by dashing and reckless Sergeant Troy (Tom Sturridge).

Anchored by Mulligan's nuanced performance, Far From The Madding Crowd is a visually arresting but ultimately anaemic portrait of rural desires filmed on location in pastoral Dorset, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Thomas Vinterberg's picture packs a mighty visual punch thanks to cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen. Rolling landscapes look invitingly wild and untamed, bathed largely in natural light, and the nascent beauty of leading lady Mulligan shines through the artfully composed muck and grime. Schoenaerts wrestles in vain with a West Country accent while Sheen and Sturridge have limited screen time to match fond memories of Peter Finch and Terence Stamp in respective roles in John Schlesinger's 1967 version. The new adaptation runs 50 minutes shorter and is slightly undernourished as a consequence. For once, less is less.

Rating: ***