Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

paxveritas There's no denying that Armitage is a handsome man and Denby-Ashe is a lovely woman. Let's put that on hold, because Mrs. Gaskell is turning over in her grave.Un-Gaskelly, un-Victorian scenes (smelling of Hollywood, not London, and certainly not of Manchester!) are injected out of writer's caprice to motivate the characters more blatantly, to bring sensationalism into the mix for the viewer's consumption. The "railroad scene" ending that so entrances viewers is nowhere to be found in the book. Victorians simply did not display open, public eroticism, because it wasn't that kind of culture in those days. What a disappointment for modern audiences, who like nothing better than sex with a little violence thrown in for emphasis (Armitage's beating the employee in the early part of this dismal adaptation).Other reviewers have said the Margaret/John relationship was not developed, or underdeveloped, and right they are.The 1975 version, even with the liabilities of Rosalind Shanks' uncertain acting, crooked smile and meandering eyebrows (way too many close-ups of that lady as Margaret), is far, far better a telling of what Mrs. Gaskell intended to say. Patrick Stewart makes a believable John - morally straight, forceful, and attempting (nearly succeeding) to be a gentleman, as in the book.Not that the 1975 version is perfect. Margaret, whose graduate degrees in economics are absent, presumes to know how to run a mill successfully, and pontificates frequently and ignorantly, but with sincerity, anyway. Furthermore, the 1975 version omits Leonard's recognition of Frederick at the train station and consequent legal problems for Margaret - but it is one thing to omit, and quite another to fabricate, as the 2004 version does.Norman Jones is appropriately intense and mellow, as the situation calls for, and overall much better as Higgins in 1975, although Brendan Coyle has lots more sex appeal in the 2004 version.This 2004 version is pretty. Nice locations. Mill fluff ten times the size of true mill fluff in those days, so the viewer can take it seriously. But it does not deserve more than two stars, and that's for Sinead Cusack's rowing with the script oars she was given - she does an outstanding job with a flawed script. Her dad was the great Cyril Cusack, an actor's actor, catch one of his later roles as the gunsmith in "The Day of the Jackal."

inega2 I know adaptations can be different from the original stories but this... I think it some of the "improvements" (or alterations) North and South suffered in this case were not only unnecessary, but they made it more difficult to understand the story and the characters. For example: when Margaret first sees Mr. Thornton, he is brutally beating a man, one of his "hands", who is already lying defenseless on the floor. How can she get to like him at all, when she knows he is capable of doing something like this? I think the way they originally meet in the book makes much more sense and it would have been better to keep it like that. Then, Margaret and Mr. Thornton barely speak to each other in the series!! It makes it very confusing (and almost ridiculous) when he suddenly decides to propose to her. As another reviewer already said, it makes you wonder "when did they fall in love??!!". It also looks like somehow Margaret started having feelings for him almost from that day on. Why? The ending felt quite weird for me (the scene in the train station), and not credible at all. I would have preferred it if they kept it a little bit more similar to the one in the book. I think the underdeveloped relationship between Margaret and Mr. Thornton is the worst part of this adaptation. Both characters change a lot throughout the story (in the book), not only because of each other, but because the people around them and they end up completely changing their minds about many things. Thus, in the book, the feelings they have for each other are perfectly understood. As for the rest, the actors were quite good and I really liked how they recreated this small industrial town and the rest of the characters. The relationships between Margaret and Bessy and Mr. and Mrs. Thornton were particularly good.

soffer4494 A fantastic period drama! Armitage, Coyle, Denby-Ashe, and Cusack light the flames that keep this going 10 years later. Everything is good about this show. The costumes and setting are so good. If you don't want to fall in love with Armitage, don't watch this. He'll suck you in and you will be stuck... for awhile, anyway. I love Coyle's worker's accent and speech. British shows tend to make us listen to the dialogue with words that are not part of everyday American language. I think they could have made it into 6 shows with more development of John and Maragret's relationship and more of an intro of the two main characters. Also, the editing at times was off which made things weird.

couldronfullofhotstronglove I'm almost ashamed to say that I did not like N&S very much after first watching it. Back then I probably compared it directly to the eternal BBC "Pride&Prejudice" - my period-drama-gateway-drug. Maybe I also watched the (german)synchronised version and that's never as good as the original - I don't remember. So the DVD was ignored for years. BUT THEN one day I watched it again (and numerous times since ;) and was very surprised that I found it truly engaging and very, very romantic. So it may be worth to give it another chance and (to all Germans:) pleeeaaaase, whenever possible watch it in the English original. I think everything else is already said in all the other review. I only want to point out that E. Gaskells work can't and shouldn't be directly compared to Jane Austens work (which I LOVE!). Gaskell emphasizes strongly on social issues and the story is told from different points of view. I also read the book by now and found it a little difficult.It's not a mere love story but focuses also on the above metioned social issues.But once I got into that, I really enjoyed it. And I like the story especially for the fact that we also learn about how John Thorton feels and thinks. Still, I probably would not have read the book unless I had seen the series before. So I'm, glad I did....