Vanity Fair -- November 2004

WHAT IS VANITY?

Which is better — to read a book before you see the movie made from it, or vice versa? For me it’s usually the latter. If I read a novel and then see a film version based on it, I’m almost always disappointed, but if I see the story on screen and then read the book, my appreciation of the book is generally enhanced. This is certainly the case with Vanity Fair, based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s several-hundred-page novel. I tried to read it back in my 20s and got bogged down about page 150 or so. Now that I’ve seen the film, though, I’d like to go back and read the novel and maybe this time get through it.

Vanity Fair is an old-fashioned period piece with the flavor of Barry Lyndon, Middlemarch, and similar historical pictures. It doesn’t depend on special effects or cheap plot twists. Its characters are complex, and the movie is about something significant. In the King James version of Ecclesiastes, Solomon’s famous words are rendered as “This too is vanity,” which I much prefer to the NIV’s “This too is meaningless.” Vanity’s meanings include excessive pride and the futility of actions based on it. Vanity Fair is about the consequences of selfish, pride-based actions and the possibility of at least partial redemption from them.

Here’s a brief plot summary: The story opens in the year 1802 in London. Becky Sharp, the story’s main character, has grown up in difficult circumstances: Orphaned young, she has had to struggle for everything she’s achieved. Now, in her early 20s, she’s a governess to the daughters of the semi-aristocratic Sir Pitt Crawley. Becky soon wins the heart of Rawdon, Sir Pitt’s younger son, and they wed secretly. Unfortunately, Rawdon has an addiction to gambling. Becky works hard to keep the family afloat but in so doing makes some prideful mistakes. I won’t spoil your viewing experience by telling you what happens except to say that Becky falls far and hard. The ending is uplifting, however.

Positives -- Just about everything:

• The set and costumes: There are great, richly decorated scenes of both down-and-out and upper-crust London. It all looks and feels real.
• The acting: It’s uniformly excellent. Reese Witherspoon, the only American in the cast, has a convincing enough British accent and plays the role of Becky perfectly. The rest of the actors are British (or Irish) and all do impressive jobs, especially James Purefoy as Becky’s husband Rawdon and Gabriel Byrne as the Marquis of Steyne.
• The writing: The movie is full of sharp, punchy lines like (about Becky) “Until now I thought of her as a mere social climber. Now I see that she’s a mountaineer.” and (from Becky) “Only two men will ever enter my bedroom: my husband and my doctor."
• The moral compass: It’s right on the mark. What’s made clear is that the characters who suffer reverses of fortune do so because of the unfortunate choices they’ve made. In contrast, other less flashy characters stay true to themselves and come out well in the end. Sir Pitt’s older son, for instance, is presented as a fop who is ridiculed by the rest of the family members for singing prayers before meals. He’s the one, though, who holds the family together and emerges as a strong and admirable person in the end.

Negatives -- Very few:

•  Madonna-like dance sequence: What this is doing in the movie I don’t know. There’s nothing salacious about it, but it seems excessive and doesn’t really fit.
• Language: There are a few examples of the d-word, and a few misuses of the Lord’s name as in “Oh God.”
• Understandability: The movie (as well as the book) has so many characters and events that it’s sometimes a bit hard to follow clearly what’s happening. This is probably inevitable in a historical film that covers an era like this one.

Bottom Line: Vanity Fair teaches us about the dangers of pride. You won't go wrong in seeing it.
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3 ¼ stars.