The Way We Live Now

This is, by far, one of the best BBC Drama series that I have ever seen in my entire life. Although the story takes a while to start off, the series and especially the end will not disappoint you. I am no fan of the BBC costume drama's (they have made so many, I almost lost the count) but since I was a Poirot fan and therefore a David Suchet fan, I gave this a try and as I said, I was surprised by the effect it had on me.

The acting is at it's very best, and my attention again goes to David Suchet in particular, because he kept amazing me every time I saw him on screen in the role of Augustus Melmotte, I can't find the words to say how perfect his acting is. Not much actors get close to perfection... but David Suchet most certainly does.

Matthew MadFadyen, Cillian Murphy, Miranda Otto and a whole range of other actors also deserve to be praised. Just as the brilliant David Yates and the memorable music of Nicholas Hooper.

If you have never seen this series, don't hesitate for a moment and buy it on DVD. I'm sure you will agree with me ;) .

"The Way We Live Now" (2001) is a four-episode BBC miniseries directed by David Yates. The book is based on a novel written by Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882). Trollope was a brilliant Victorian novelist, but, unlike his contemporary Charles Dickens, Trollope's name is not nearly as well known in the 21st Century. However, the BBC has produced several of his works, and they are worth seeing.

This novel is Trollope's longest, and possibly his most complex. Someone has estimated that there are over 100 named characters, and subplots abound. However, all the plots and subplots involve Augustus Melmotte, a shady character with grandiose schemes. Melmotte has the uncanny ability to make people want to give him money. He wants the money because his goal in life is to be an English gentleman.

If there had been a weak actor playing Augustus Melmotte, the whole movie would have fallen apart. This movie hung together because David Suchet played Melmotte so well. You'll have to see the film to know just how completely Suchet takes over the role of Melmotte.

Most of the supporting cast was at the usual high BBC level. Matthew Macfadyen plays Sir Felix Carbury, the cad, very well. Paloma Baeza plays Hetta Carbury, his lovely sister who is everything Sir Felix is not.

I think that the two weakest actors were Cillian Murphy as Paul Montague, and Miranda Otto as Mrs. Hurtle. Paul Montague is supposed to be the perfect Victorian hero. He's an engineer, and he isn't driven by greed. He's driven by the goal of designing and building the Mexican railroad. (The Mexican railroad is the starting point of Melmotte's rise to financial power.) The problem is that Murphy doesn't look or act the part. His character is not that different--in appearance or manner--from Sir Felix Carbury. They are supposed to be at opposite poles, but they aren't.

Miranda Otto is an Australian actor who has been given the role of an American from Oregon. Otto has a strong Southern US accent, which doesn't work. It's certainly possible that Mrs. Hurtle was originally from the U.S. South, and moved to Oregon. However, her Southern accent doesn't sound right, and it's clear that she is struggling with it whenever she's on screen.

As an interesting side note, Mr. Brehgert, a Jewish banker, is acted by Jim Carter, who plays Carson the butler on Downton Abbey. He's in love with an elegant Englishwoman, and his religion stands in the way of their marriage. His bank lends money to Melmotte. That's another subplot that revolves around the mysterious Augustus Melmotte.

I enjoyed this miniseries, and I recommend it highly. Without Suchet it could have been a failure. With Suchet, it's a triumph. We saw it on the small screen at home, and it worked very well. (There are a few outdoor scenes that would work better in a theater, but most of them are fillers put into the movie to "open it up." The real plots take place indoors, and they work well on DVD.) Seek out this movie and watch it! You'll be glad you did.

Anthony Trollope's 'The Way We Live Now' is a masterful, though long, book, with many richly drawn complex characters, the stories of the characters fully developed and fascinating, delicious satire and having much to say on various topical matters.

Taking this mini-series as an adaptation, it is not hard to see why it would disappoint. It's very condensed and also exaggerated, and it's also not as rich with not quite enough of the topical matters of the time explored in depth. The characters are still interesting (characters driven by greed preparing for a heavy hall which happens) and entertaining and the story fully absorbing with the subplots nicely fleshed out, just that it pales in comparison to the book.

In all honesty however, because of being so heavy and rich in detail and for its length, the book is very difficult to adapt (almost as difficult to adapt as Stephen King, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy) and, regardless of how disappointing it is in comparison, the 'The Way We Live Now' mini-series does laudably and is a solid and even very good to great mini-series on its own.

Of course there are things that stop it from living up to its even stronger potential, and forgive me if the flaws that have been covered in previous reviews are repeated (or shall we say somewhat parroted). Those flaws are the ending and two miscasts, while the many strengths far outweigh them they are big and jarring enough to not ignore. The ending is rushed and doesn't feel that well rounded off.

Cillian Murphy has shown considerable talent over the years, but here he's too delicate-looking, too young and rather effeminate and earnest. He doesn't convince as an engineer and doesn't fit the period either. Miranda Otto is strange and not in a good way. She plays her already pretty dumbed down character as a broad and annoying caricature and even more painfully attempts a Southern accent (and badly doesn't describe it, it's one of the all-time worst attempts at an accent to me) that sounds so overdone and so obviously fake with a bored-sounding drawl to match.

Luckily the rest of the cast more than make up for them. David Suchet dominates, playing a loathsome yet still fascinating character to gleeful perfection, a contender for his best non-Poirot performance. Shirley Henderson plays her emotional-roller-coaster-filled character very passionately and movingly, and Matthew MacFadyen is clearly enjoying himself as a cad but brings enough charm to make one believe how easy he is to fall for.

Douglas Hodge gives his very conflicted role a real humanity and Paloma Baeza has a slightly underwritten character but plays her with plenty of fire and intensity. Anne Marie Duff allows one to sympathise with her while also reminding us of how she is no much better than those who have shunned her, while Jim Carter brings much joy in a wonderful performance that has gone under-appreciated. Allan Corduner is spirited though a little more wit wouldn't go amiss and Cheryl Campbell is her usual dependable self.

'The Way We Live Now' looks fantastic, with evocative scenery, interiors, buildings and costumes that are striking on the eyes all captured perfectly by photography that is both atmospheric and luminous. The music score could not have been a better fit and also a fine score on its own, while there are some delicious bits of humour in the script with the satirical elements sharp and gleefully exaggerated at times and leaving enough room for insight. The storytelling is absorbing and compelling throughout the length, everything being easy to follow without being simplistic or over-complicated, and the characters are intriguing and enjoyable if with more meat to them in the source material.

Overall, very good mini-series that had the potential of being even stronger. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Another fine Sunday night filler from Andrew Davies and the BBC. Based on one of Anthony Trollope's later and less well known novels, this six -part story (300 minutes) covers the short but spectacular career in London of Augustus Melmott, financial fraudster extraordinaire. Melmott is a Victorian Robert Maxwell (the bouncing Czech), a promoter of huge ambitious business ventures with a flamboyant style that proves irresisitable even to the hard-nosed. Like Maxwell, he has a seat in the House of Commons. Some of the hard-nosed have their suspicions but go along for the ride anyway no doubt hoping to get something for themselves along the way.

Trollope weaves the strands of the plot adroitly using the Carbury family as the central characters. Lady Carbury (Cheryl Campbell) is the widow of a baronet (minor aristocracy) and without the means to live in the appropriate style. Her son Felix (Matthew McFadyen) is a total waster, putting any money he gets on the card table, and losing it. Lady C is trying to palm her rather priggish daughter Hetta (Paloma Baeza) off onto her nephew Roger (Douglas Hogg), also a prig, who has inherited the family estates. Roger is interested but Hetta is not, as she fancies Paul Montague (Cillian Murphy), a railway engineer and friend of Roger's. Murphy works for Melmott's company (the board is stacked with peers and baronets, including Felix). The Central American railway is supposed to be building a railroad from the central west of the US to Mexico. The railroad route has been surveyed, but funnily enough construction keeps on being delayed even though enough money has been raised to at least start it. Where's the money Melmott? Some is syphoned into his daughter Marie's trust fund. Marie (Shirley Henderson) is courted by Felix, who is very interested in the money, though not so interested in Marie.

To say more would spoil the story. The casting is splendid, except for Cillian Murphy as Paul whose pretty-boy looks are more appropriate for a Romeo than some who has been a civil engineer for some years and spent a lot of that time in the merciless Mexican sun. As his American mistress Mrs Hurtle, Miranda Otto, otherwise a capable actress, can't do the Deep South accent. It would have been better to re-write the part for an Australian. If it's any consolation, Meryl Streep can't do an Australian accent either – it comes out as cockney, as we saw in 'Evil Angels'.

The star performance is without a doubt David Suchet's as Melmott. Though a small man, he dominates every scene he is in, with his deep loud voice and grand manner. Critics are silenced by a mixture of flattery, bluff and sometimes threat. In the finish we almost like him, despite the chaos he causes. It is truly the role David Suchet was born to play, one utterly different from his small fussy Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Shirley Henderson as Marie also stands out in this company of very accomplished acting.

I haven't checked the novel, but there are one or two quite modern touches for which Trollope may have been responsible, such as Marie's (or was it Hetta's?) feminist speech towards the end. He may have got that from his mum, who had to support her family by novel-writing after her husband died, and did so quite successfully.

In the 1870s we had railways, in the 2000s we had dot coms. The vehicles change but we still have fear and greed as dominant players in the markets. The title 'The Way We Live Now' is just as apt today, as we see the Enron, Arthur Andersen, Worldcom crashes in the US, and HIH, FAI and One-tel in Australia. It is interesting that this 1875 novel, with no high literary pretensions, pulp fiction in fact, should be so relevant today. A engrossing film adaption from the Eng Lit specialists.

The Way We Live Now is yet another British TV adaptation of the works of Anthony Trollope. Like The Pallisers and The Barchester Chronicles this is yet another mini-series to savor. The rich setting of 1870's London society is boldly brought to the screen. David Suchet gives the performance of his career as scoundrel Augustus Malmotte. Equally brilliant is Shirley Henderson as his daughter Marie. Henderson has emerged as one of the more spellbinding thespians of the last ten years. Why she isn't a major star when performers with a tiny fraction of her talent are on the A-list is one of those mysteries that will never be explained. Still, this is not quite up there in the same league with The Pallisers. Some of the characters are not that interesting. Unfortunately, Miranda Otto as Mrs. Hurtle and Cillian Murphy as Paul Montague are miscast.