Brideshead Revisited

Rating: PG-13

Movie Release Date: July 25, 2008

DVD Release Date: January 13, 2009

Plot 411: A tale of forbidden love and lost innocence and the power of faith, fate and destiny.

Review: This film was about the eye-opening experience a middle class boy has when he goes away to Oxford. It's about the people he meets and falls in love with, the power of religion and the separation of the classes. It's difficult to describe as a whole because it's so layered. At times the movie focuses on lost innocence and this film becomes a coming of age story in the early 1900s. At other times the theme is focused tightly on class differences and the lure that aristocracy has on those who aren't born into it. Still other points of the film questions the idea of faith and religion and how it can overwhelm you if you let it become your sole focus in life. Even more powerful is the psychological analysis of how a family is affected when its matriarch is single-minded in her pursuit to teach her children religion. The family dynamic is completely strained and the children resent and almost hate their mother. She is controlling and overpowering but does it all with good intentions. Both sides suffer yet don't see that they too cause suffering in the other. In addition to all this complexity there is, of course, the wonderful English countryside and a gigantic mansion of a home. There is beautiful artwork and the costumes are really superb. Starring in this film are Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon.

Watch It: For a highly complex drama about friendship, love and family.

Skip It: If you're already balking at the idea of another period piece set in Britain.

Trailer: