The Critics Speak

Vanity Fair

Critic: Steph Lewis
On a scale of 0 to Awesome, I rate this: "CREATIVE" or "UNIQUE"
Released: September 1, 2004
Director: Mira Nair
MPAA RATING: PG-13, for some sensuality/partial nudity and a brief violent image

I was pretty excited to see this one because I love Reese Witherspoon, and I have really enjoyed some of Mira Nair's directing (mainly Monsoon Wedding). So, I thought this would be a beautiful movie where Reese could really spread her wings as a starring actress in a drama. It was a good movie...well...sort of.

Vanity Fair tells the story of Becky (Witherspoon), a young orphan with a low social status. She wants to be accepted by higher, much higher, levels of society, and begins her social climb upward through sheer determination. She marries Rawdon Crawley (played beautifully by James Purefoy), which brings her yet closer to her goal. Her new mother-in-law, however, casts the newlyweds out of any inheritance or financial support & they are forced to make it on their own. Becky gets pregnant and is left when her husband goes off to fight against Napoleon's European invasion. Her friend Amelia is also pregnant and her husband does not survive the battle. The movie is good up to this point.

Then it gets weird. Becky & Rawdon can barely afford to live. There are a few bizarre scenes from India (which made the whole audience laugh, not because it was funny but because it was so out of place) and some strange scene cuts. I saw people in the theater turning to each other trying to figure out what happened several times because the quick cuts made it difficult to follow. Becky wants to be higher in society so she takes to the Marquess of Steyne (Gabriel Byrne) and works through him in hopes of actualizing her dreams. There are some weird scenes that feel out of the period, kind of modern-stylized, which threw me for a loop because I did't expect it.

I have another issue with Becky's character in that I'd like to see more of her intentions, or reasoning behind risking everything. Why does she insist on risking everything time after time? Is she that dumb? I know she's not dumb...but don't fully understand why she keeps taking these risks. She ends up risking everything she has and...well...it just ends bizarre.

This movie felt to me like it was very well thought out, but that it ended up being way too long. So, the director had to keep cutting and cutting and cutting until it didn't flow anymore. That's just a guess though.

Kudos to Witherspoon for a great acting job. The strongest acting, however, came from James Purefoy. He handled his character with wry smiles and subtlety. The scene before he goes off to war is beautiful and heartbreaking. I loved this movie, and I hated this movie. The actors pulled through, but the editing and directing left a bit to be desired.