The Mayor Of Casterbridge(2003)
The captivating story of love, honor, family and betrayal.
Destitute and drunken, Michael Henchard is an itinerant farmhand who sells his wife and daughter to a sailor in a moment of alcohol-fueled desperation. So begins The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy's enduring classic.
This lavish new adaptation from A&E and Britain's ITV stars Ciaran Hinds (Road To Perdition, Jane Eyre) as the tragic, tormented Henchard. Decades after his fateful decision, now reformed and respectable, he is offered a chance at redemption when his wife reappears with her daughter. But the reunion's promise is soon tarnished by a web of jealousy, deceit and wounded pride.
Adapted for the screen by Ted Whitehead (A&E's Tess Of the D'Urbervilles) The Mayor Of Casterbridge features powerful supporting performances from Jodhi May (The House of Mirth), Polly Walker (Emma), and James Purefoy (A Knight's Tale, Mansfield Park).
Member Reviews
A great cast on the Mayor’s drawbridge - RoddyPiper
Hang on for a stream-of-consciousness-CoCo-inspired review:
Ciaran Hinds as Michael Henchard, Hardy’s depiction of a karma-marked soul – so huge, twisted and knotted and dark it takes 200 minutes just to skim over the top of it and drop the occasional flare or depth charge into its gaping maw to see what is going on down there – but against a gorgeous panorama of Hardy’s mythic Wessex English rural countryside . . . we follow Henchard into the country fair where rum-addled and depressed occurs his original sin - selling his wife and baby daughter for about 5 guineas (which I have traced into today’s Canadian currency at about $5,000, plus GST). Great scene after great scene in this epic include the seduction of Henchard’s protégé and main protagonist the young Scotsman by the widow Lucetta (Polly Walker as the hottest Victorian matron since the dinner-as-sex scene with Mrs. Waters in Tom Jones). And the whole time, you can relish contentedly in this uninterrupted saga while noticing the subtle one second stops and fades, wherein this made-for-Brit TV blockbuster no doubt was stuffed to the gills with every piece of British commercialism imaginable, thankfully cut out and flushed down some London toilet. Faithful to the novel I first read in a Windsor High School, thanks to the excellent screenplay by Ted Whitehead - Go! Enjoy!Tear Jerker - Piknik
This film has all the twisty-turny tragedy expected in a Thomas Hardy novel. Ciaran Hinds is remarkable at playing a character who is both despicable and sympathetic. I was crying at the end. His character never fully overcomes his predisposition to sabotage every meaningful relationship he ever had.
Member Reviews
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A great cast on the Mayor’s drawbridge - RoddyPiper
Hang on for a stream-of-consciousness-CoCo-inspired review:
Ciaran Hinds as Michael Henchard, Hardy’s depiction of a karma-marked soul – so huge, twisted and knotted and dark it takes 200 minutes just to skim over the top of it and drop the occasional ...Tear Jerker - Piknik
This film has all the twisty-turny tragedy expected in a Thomas Hardy novel. Ciaran Hinds is remarkable at playing a character who is both despicable and sympathetic. I was crying at the end. His character never fully overcomes his predisposition to sabotage ...