The Tichborne Claimant

British period pieces typically suffocate under the dull weight of precise costumes and historically accurate settings, offering nothing but boring, predictable and comforting aesthetics. Here is a stronger number, true to the tired genre but beyond it -- a period piece with strong, well-developed themes and balanced, multidimensional characters liberated from crusty, faux bourgeois literariness. Aside from haunting, perfectly pitched performances, it examines questions that matter: What constitutes personality? What constitutes class? Is one contingent on the other? If a "coarse" man can be transformed into a convincing "gentleman," what is he really? And if the class boundaries are truly porous and arbitrary, what is their true function and purpose? Don't let the superficially "Masterpiece Theatre"-ish trappings fool you -- this mysterious, stimulating picture has a pulse.

At the start of THE TICHBORNE CLAIMENT we're informed that this is the greatest fraud ever played upon the British public so what does this type of movie say to you ? That you're going to be watching a truly cinematic and enthralling tale ? A sort of Italian Job with horse drawn carriages instead of minis ? That's how the movie should have been produced but for some reason the audience are never treated to anything resembling a cinematic movie

Who do we blame - The director David Yates or the producer Tom McCabe ? I looked up Yates resume and though much of his work has been in television he has a fairly good track record and will be directing the next Harry Potter film so that must mean something while McCabe has a very uneven CV which nearly always involves his produced works failing to get wide distribution so I'm making a very educated guess that Mr McCabe is the one responsible for this film being virtually unknown

The problem starts round about the opening sequence where Andrew Bogle relates the story of Lord Tichborne through a series of photographs and a not convincing model shot of a shipwreck . This expositional story telling technique has been done many times via the BBC's excellent history show TIMEWATCH and umpteen documentaries on the history channel and all through the running time of THE TICHBORNE CLAIMENT I never got the feeling that I was watching a dramatised cinematic account but something from The History Channel

What makes this rather unforgivable is the potential of the story and the fine cast . People love hearing about other people being made fools of and it's part of human nature but at no point will the audience rub their hands in sadistic glee watching people getting ripped off ( GREY OWL also suffers from this by being overly serious ) and the cast certainly don't help by being very staid . The whole movie would have been much more better if it had a Dickensian caricature feel where the characters are portrayed as Great British eccentrics . As it stands THE TICHBORNE CLAIMENT is instantly forgettable and ever so wasted as a cinematic film

British period dramas aren't normally my thing , but since this is the first film i ever saw in a test screening , i thought i would give it a mention.

The titchbourne claimant is a slow moving, by the numbers period drama that does have 2 good performances - if your willing to stick around for them . John kani does well in his role as the solem faced valet bogel as does robert pugh as the slob turned aristocrat claimant .

These are strong points in an other wise dull film.

The film seemed more suited to television as a drama special rather than an official cinema release but because its so unremarkable It probably would not have mattered .

Lacking in originality - it didn't match up to the Return of Martin Guerre; there are many acclaimed examples showing the decay and corruption of the aristocracy. Even in terms of the implied racism relating to how the manservant is treated by the Tichborne family says nothing new. The all star cast retrieves a little for the film - there are excellent cameos from John Gielgud as the judge and Stephen Fry as the barrister for the Tichbornes. Their performances excel in clarifying the bias of the legal system. A disappointing film, a thin story line with little to commend it. Watchable as a TV slot, not a 'must have', let alone an evening out.