The Go-Between

'The past is a foreign country: They do things differently there.'

What a great opening line and it belongs to the novel which this is adapted from. It got me immediately hooked.

What also helped was an astonishing performance from actor Jack Hollington who played Leo.

The film starts with Leo as an old man (Jim Broadbent) going back to revisit the summer of 1900 which had a profound effect on his life.

As a 12 year old boy he went to stay with a well to do school friend Marcus and his family, it becomes apparent that Leo is from a more modest background and has to adjust to a society of privilege and wealth.

Leo is struck by the beautiful Marian who is due to be engaged to Viscount Trimingham (Stephen Campbell Moore) and therefore set herself up for life. However he has been disfigured in the Boer War and Marian has been having a passionate affair with tenant farmer Ted Burgess (Ben Batt smoldering like a younger Rufus Sewell for all his worth.)

Leo is used by Marian and Ted as a go-between carrying secret messages between the two, yet he also used to convey messages between Trimingham and Marian.

Leo realises even at his tender age that the affair between lowly Ted and Marian is doomed and also he has been used by Marian. Her kind acts to get new clothes for him had ulterior motives.

It was a fast moving adaptation, very much cut down from all the flab. It kept the class divisions subdued, even Trimingham a war veteran aims to have cordial relations with his tenants in the estate but definitely wants to win the cricket match against his farmers.

Lesley Manville gives an icy performance as Mrs Maudsley, Marion's mother who suspects what she has been up to but hell bent on her marrying Trimingham. Even Trimingham suspects she is not entirely his hence why he would like Ted to join the army.

I have not seen the 1971 film version but I guess seeing Julie Christie and Alan Bates together again would probably had taken my mind back to their earlier pairing in Far from the Madding Crowd which kind of has a few superficial similar plot elements.

There is a coda at the end as the older Leo encounters the older Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) which rounds off the story. Leo however is still haunted by the past.

A wonderful well cast and moving theme. Leo (Jack Hollington) held centre stage with almost cameo performances from Jim Broadbent and Vanessa Redgrave. Set in 1900, just one minor error on the soundtrack - a Collared Dove cooing in the background on a quiet summer's day - this species of dove didn't arrive in the UK from the Middle East via Europe until the 1960s!

When I first heard the BBC was going to show a new version of The Go Between I wanted to turn in and watch it. I read the novel years ago and it made a vivid impression on me. Its always been one of my favourite books, and I thought of it with fondness after I moved to East Anglia.

It was wonderful at first seeing the older Leo with his younger self (in his green suit) on the train. I liked how the filming concentrated on the house and the lush greenery. But I was disappointed. The new Marion is no Julie Christie. Fair enough, no one else is Julie Christie except Miss Christie herself, but the Marion in this re-imagining is fair, very pretty, but lacking any real depth until she becomes angry with Leo for not taking messages to Ted. The new Ted, like Marion, is lovely to look at. I wasn't surprised when Ted was swimming in the nude and working in the fields stripped to the waist. (The BBC has been broadcasting several adaptations of classic novels recently including scenes with topless and wet males, trying to capitalize on the fervor made by Colin Firth swimming as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice) It was nice to have some eye candy for the ladies and it worked well with the themes of the story. The cricket scene and the following concert were well played too.

It turned out to be a chocolate box depiction of the Go Between, full of richness but full of sweetness mostly on the surface, mostly shallow, and ultimately unsatisfying. I disliked the compartmenting of the story so the viewpoint of the old Leo was shoehorned to the end. I missed some of the key scenes in the novel, such as Leo offering his dry bathing suit to Marion so she can dry her hair with it and Leo polishing Ted's cricket bat. I missed seeing Norwich Cathedral, and Marion meeting up again with Leo at the train section wasn't as meaningful as her ditching him at the Cathedral and telling him to wait for her. While the cricket scenes and concert scenes were effective the new version doesn't give as much indication of the class divide as the original novel or the 1971 film. I liked the hints of a Norfolk accent in Ted's speech: it would have been nice to hear and see more Norfolk in the film. It felt very abridged and heavily cut so it could fit into a 90 minute slot. I much prefer the 1971 film. Harold Pinter did a fine job with the screenplay, and the acting is superb. Only Vanessa Redgrave and Jim Broadbent achieve any pathos in this version. The young actor who plays Leo is sweet looking and finely suggests his inner torment. The viewer however isn't given any notion of Leo's acting and conniving to win popularity in the house. Several times in the novel Leo plays for effect, like asking for a large amount of sugar in his tea because small boys are supposed to like sugar. I groaned at the ending: seeing the Old Leo and the young Leo together in the train traveling to the house was effective, but seeing them together walk towards the house at the end, preparing to speak to Marion's grandson, was corny. Marion's recounting of what happened to the others in the house did sound like a rushed through list, and didn't convey the weight of destruction: how the brand new century so promising in that long ago summer turned out to be devastating for Marion, her family, and the country.

Leo recounts his life, the Summer of 1900 had a huge impact on his life, when as a 12 year old he went to stay with School friend Marcus and his family. Since that Summer Leo has lived in the Shadows of the past. Leo is enchanted by the beautiful Marian, she recognises that Leo is from a humble background, and as they are surrounded by such wealth she takes pity on him and treats him to new clothes. Her motive for doing so though was to sneak off and meet with someone. Whilst out playing Leo heads to the farm owed by Ted Burgess, Leo falls and gets patched up by Ted, Leo offers a favour in return, he is to carry a message back to Marian. Young Leo becomes the go between for the two who are conducting a secret love affair,carrying messages back and forth. Marion's engagement to the Wealthy Viscount Trimingham is announced and the love triangle seems doomed.

A true tale of class and forbidden love, this was a glowing adaptation, it's been a long time since I saw the 70's version, but this was excellent. A definite bright future ahead for young Jack Hollington (Leo) he managed to outshine a totally wonderful cast, he was just incredible, a hugely talented young man. It's brilliant acted by all, but Lesley Manville should get a special mention as the cold Mrs Maudsley.

Favourite scene for me had to be the discussion between Leo and Marian, when as a confused youngster he can't understand why Marian couldn't marry her true love Ted. It was just wonderful.

The scene of Mrs Maudsley bullying Leo into divulging the secret place of assignation between Marian and Ted was tough to watch.

You cannot help watch this and help feel sad for Leo, manipulated by both Marian and Ted, both used him badly, Trimingham treated him very well and knew all along what was going on, never once turning on Leo.

Bravo BBC 9/10

I have rated this film as 8 out of ten because if you ignore the original version it is an excellent production with some good performances but for me nothing can match the original 1971 version which I would give 10 out of 10.

It was an almost impossible task to attempt to improve on the original and if you can't do that, why bother? Unfortunately the new film blatantly tries to copy the 1971 version in several places and inexplicably omits key lines and characters that were in the L.P. Hartley novel.

And why was the new film not filmed in Norfolk? Berkshire is an unconvincing substitute. Railway buffs will also have noticed that the station shown was obviously southern, probably the Bluebell Railway, not at all like a Norfolk station.