No doubt that the Mayor of Casterbridge has a strong cast, headed by Ciaran Hinds (who had an important role in "There Will be Blood"). Hinds, as Michael Henchard, the mayor, is ably seconded by Juliet Aubrey as Susan Henchard, the wife he sold for five pounds during a drunken spree; Jodhi May as Elizabeth Jane, Susan's daughter; James Purefoy as Donald Farfrae who becomes the manager of Henchard's grain brokerage and subsequently his rival, and Polly Walker as Lucetta Templeman, Henchard's one-time lover and later Farfrae's wife.
As a two-episode TV drama, the Mayor of Casterbridge is on screen for over three hours. I can't help feeling that it would have been more effective if cut by a third. Although the emotional ebbs and flows are at the heart of Hardy's novel, they do not translate easily to the screen and director David Thatcher appears to have dealt with that difficulty primarily by letting Henchard's mercurial temper dominate and determine the action.
Susan Henchard, the abandoned wife who returns, and Lucetta, the abandoned lover who comes to prefer Farfrae to Henchard and is thereupon exposed to merciless ridicule and persecution by disclosure of the love letters she wrote to Henchard are sympathetic but tragic figures, but the leisurely exposition of their tales robs their tragedies of their full import. In the end, this is -- above all -- Henchard's story and a better choice might have been to concentrate on that instead of trying to put the entire novel on view.
By all means, see it. But be prepared for intermittent irrelevancies.
As a two-episode TV drama, the Mayor of Casterbridge is on screen for over three hours. I can't help feeling that it would have been more effective if cut by a third. Although the emotional ebbs and flows are at the heart of Hardy's novel, they do not translate easily to the screen and director David Thatcher appears to have dealt with that difficulty primarily by letting Henchard's mercurial temper dominate and determine the action.
Susan Henchard, the abandoned wife who returns, and Lucetta, the abandoned lover who comes to prefer Farfrae to Henchard and is thereupon exposed to merciless ridicule and persecution by disclosure of the love letters she wrote to Henchard are sympathetic but tragic figures, but the leisurely exposition of their tales robs their tragedies of their full import. In the end, this is -- above all -- Henchard's story and a better choice might have been to concentrate on that instead of trying to put the entire novel on view.
By all means, see it. But be prepared for intermittent irrelevancies.