TV Guide describes this as something like "two gamblers meet on a boat," but it's much more than that. It's a story of romance, religion, and ruin -- but not hopeless ruin.
The first half presents Raif Fiennes as a semi-deacon of a strict English sect, a young man who has been beaten into neurotic submission to the extent that almost EVERYTHING is forbidden. I'm not sure he wouldn't hesitate before scratching an itch. Estranged from his father for some slight, he supports himself by playing cards, giving the rest to charity. He leaves Oxford aboard the Leviathan for a ministry in Sidney. At the same time we meet Cate Blanchett, an ambitious young lady who enjoys gambling, does well at it, acquires a glass factory, and moves to Australia aboard the Leviathan.
The two of them DO meet aboard the ship and spend a lot of time together in Sidney, playing poker and making wagers on all sorts of silly thing, such as who can finish scrubbing the floor first. They're in love, of course, and Blanchett more or less offers herself to him -- she's something of a rebel -- but he shakily backs off.
The second half resembles "Fitzcarraldo," when she furnishes the components of a small chapel made entirely of iron and glass plates. Fiennes' job is to schlep it up overland through tough country to an isolated settlement. He gets the job done but it all ends rather badly. Maybe. I mean, he dies a horrifying death by drowning, but then he sees his smiling father reaching out to him, and then a smiling Blanchett reaching to him. I don't know what to make of scenes like that.
It's a very genteel story as befits the times. Towards the end, Fiennes does get balled by a horny widow but only when he's half conscious from exhaustion and illness. I didn't know it was possible and I'm still dubious.
The photography is crisp and at times epic. The art direction would be hard to improve upon. Blanchett and Fiennes play well together as two somewhat wild redheads. In a way, despite the skilled acting on everyone's part, what's most memorable is Cate Blanchett. She's an actress of considerable range, of course, but she's transcendently beautiful at times in this film -- that long face with its slitted blue eyes, that wide generous mouth, and that impossible, fluorescent nose. It's a face you could fall into.
The first half presents Raif Fiennes as a semi-deacon of a strict English sect, a young man who has been beaten into neurotic submission to the extent that almost EVERYTHING is forbidden. I'm not sure he wouldn't hesitate before scratching an itch. Estranged from his father for some slight, he supports himself by playing cards, giving the rest to charity. He leaves Oxford aboard the Leviathan for a ministry in Sidney. At the same time we meet Cate Blanchett, an ambitious young lady who enjoys gambling, does well at it, acquires a glass factory, and moves to Australia aboard the Leviathan.
The two of them DO meet aboard the ship and spend a lot of time together in Sidney, playing poker and making wagers on all sorts of silly thing, such as who can finish scrubbing the floor first. They're in love, of course, and Blanchett more or less offers herself to him -- she's something of a rebel -- but he shakily backs off.
The second half resembles "Fitzcarraldo," when she furnishes the components of a small chapel made entirely of iron and glass plates. Fiennes' job is to schlep it up overland through tough country to an isolated settlement. He gets the job done but it all ends rather badly. Maybe. I mean, he dies a horrifying death by drowning, but then he sees his smiling father reaching out to him, and then a smiling Blanchett reaching to him. I don't know what to make of scenes like that.
It's a very genteel story as befits the times. Towards the end, Fiennes does get balled by a horny widow but only when he's half conscious from exhaustion and illness. I didn't know it was possible and I'm still dubious.
The photography is crisp and at times epic. The art direction would be hard to improve upon. Blanchett and Fiennes play well together as two somewhat wild redheads. In a way, despite the skilled acting on everyone's part, what's most memorable is Cate Blanchett. She's an actress of considerable range, of course, but she's transcendently beautiful at times in this film -- that long face with its slitted blue eyes, that wide generous mouth, and that impossible, fluorescent nose. It's a face you could fall into.