I have said it before and I will say it again: the novels of Thomas Hardy are perfect for contemporary cinema, as they’re tales of passion and self-destruction with an underlying social criticism and, sometimes, very unhappy endings. Far from the Madding Crowd might be Hardy’s “happiest” (read: least depressing) novel of the bunch, so it’s no wonder that it has been made into several films already. The latest adaptation, however, comes to us courtesy of director Thomas Vinterburg (The Hunt) and stars Casey Mulligan as the passionate and independent heroine, Bathsheba Everdene.
The story tells of how Bathsheba inherits a farm that she proposes to run for herself, defying social convention and gender restrictions. She’s brilliant, but she’s also willful and vain, and attracts three very different suitors for her hand: Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), an honest but down-on-his-luck sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a dashing Sergeant (Tom Sturridge); and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), an older bachelor whose cold exterior conceals a fiery and obsessive nature. As romances bloom and unrequited love festers, Bathsheba finds herself caught between her own desires and those of her would-be husbands.
We’ve already seen trailers for this adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd, but the latest gives us a clearer depiction of each character, their differences, and the potential tragedies underlying life in a rural community. The film certainly appears to be beautifully photographed, with plenty of rolling hills and romantic glades and the slight dirt and grime that everyone likes to inject into Victorian melodramas nowadays. Hopefully the movie itself will live up to its appearance; it certainly has the cast to do justice to the story and with a script by David Nicholls (Starter for 10), we can hope for the best.
Far from the Madding Crowd will come to theaters on May 1. You can watch the trailer above and also check out some images from the film below.
