Moustroll
Good movie but grossly overrated
Spoonatects
Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Humaira Grant
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Aura V
I never read or heard of the novel and out of boredom and curiosity I decided to watch the movie, given that Hugh Dancy and Romola Garai star in it. I loved Hugh Dancy in "David Copperfield", I was 10 or 11 when the movie aired on TV and I watched it every year. I watched Romola Garai in "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" and I wondered how she would be like in other films."Daniel Deronda" is something I never thought I might encounter. This is more than entertainment, this is culture, something more directors and producers should try to achieve. If they were to make this movie with Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus in modern America, people might be interested. - Joking, after the failure of "Clash of the Titans 3d" the last thing we'd need is more of Hollywood's appetite for destroying culture! I can't talk much about the plot of this movie since every line and every meaning is still spinning in my head. It's a great story about self-discovery, kindness, life's way of giving everybody a little bit of what they deserve. Of course, I'm rather one to think life doesn't give us anything we are getting everything based on what we have decided.
Gloryous
I really liked this movie. I was quite impressed with Hugh Dancy, he is very handsome, and is the kind of man that makes women's heart flutter. In this very intricate story of a young man wealthy, well-read, knowledgeable and interested in helping others, he admires one young woman from afar. She is beautiful and knows it and flirts with all men. Daniel is the only one that knows how to listen to her. She thinks all men are in love with her. She however has a secret that keeps her from ever being truly happy. Daniel is a caring man, and finds a woman and takes her in and helps her, the movie centers around the young beautiful woman and her exploits and how she is perceived by Daniel. He is quite a catch but the one who does end up catching him, will surprise all of you.Barbara Hersey plays his Mother and shows her versatility in playing a much older woman. I was surprised at how well she played the part. Very believable.The cast is just amazing. I felt as if I was spending time in the 1800's. I recommend this film I believe it is a classic like that of any Jane Austen story. I thoroughly enjoyed the story.
George Parker
"Daniel Deronda" is a worthy knock-off of George Eliot's novel of the same name which tells of a young Englishman's search for meaning and purpose while enjoying a life of property and leisure. As with most Victorian period costume dramas out of the UK, this film is sumptuously appointed and well represented by the players and places as it meanders through the usual multiplicity of relationships from aristocrat to pauper with a Jewish thread for distinction. "Daniel Deronda" conjures a range of characters from a stoic martinet to a spoiled beauty to an attractive Jewess and beyond with love, greed, envy, guile, and death all swirling around the Deronda character as it manages to sort itself out with a coherent story arc and a more or less happy ending. A "should see" for anyone into Victorian flicks. (B)
William_Ponsonby-Cole
George Eliot was a truly excellent writer, but 'Daniel Deronda' was perhaps not her best work. This may go some way to mitigating the rather average results that emerge from this adaptation. Intended to be an insightful and complex tale of love, greed, selfishness, prejudice, maturity, and self-knowledge, the film (like the novel) proceeds more like two almost-unconnected stories, neither of which is wildly interesting.Tying the two plots together is Daniel Deronda, played by Hugh Dancy. Dancy walks his way through, somehow making most of his lines seem redundant. To be fair, acting out a novel that uses extensive narration and introspection can't be easy, but a more experienced actor might have been a better choice to tackle such a tough job. The character of Daniel is a young man on the path of self-discovery, with detours along the way for a bit of romance and a little aimlessness. His relationships with two women form the fabric of the story.The first tale revolves around the young, pretty, and petty Gwendolen Harleth. Played well, if not spectacularly, by the radiant Romola Garai, she is impetuous and selfish (though usually without intent), thinking that she is and must be the centre of attention. Garai plays her as someone who thinks that she has mastered the world around her, but is in fact nothing more than an indulged child. When her family is virtually ruined financially, she must choose between making a loveless marriage to maintain her high living, or quiet penury in the country. Naturally, she chooses the former. However, what she does not realise is that her suitor, Henleigh Grandcourt, is actually a cold, calculating sadist whose only interest in her is as an item of torment. Grandcourt is played by Hugh Bonneville, the one real stand-out in the production. Bonneville delivers an excellent performance as the deceptive, thoroughly wicked abuser. His Grandcourt is a flint-hearted reptile who first tricks Gwendolen with false kindness and then, when he has her in his grasp, begins to crush her with his cruelty.Plot two centres on Daniel's relationship with Mirah Lapidoth, a Jewish singer whom he saves from a suicide attempt. Mirah is played by Jodhi May, who is actually rather flat in her delivery. May seems to go in for the "hushed whisper" technique quiet a bit. I suspect the idea was to portray Mirah as a sensitive, troubled woman, but in the end she just seems dull and high-strung. Her search for (and eventual reunion with) her family draws Daniel down a path that he would probably not otherwise have visited, and it has a significant impact on his life.Good supporting work shores things up a bit, though the screen time is limited. The first comes from Edward Fox as Sir Hugo, Daniel's benefactor, a kindly old man of great wealth who acts as a sort of father to him. The always-excellent Greta Scacchi, looking strikingly haggard in character, is a ghost from Grandcourt's past who comes back to haunt his new bride.I rate it 6/10.