I checked this video out of my local library; when I got it home I was surprised to find the casting of Rosamund Pike and Rachael Stirling was not what I thought: Pike plays Gudrun and Stirling Ursula rather than the other way round. This is a fundamental miscasting that casts a pall over the whole production. I remember Glenda Jackson's Gudrun from the Russell film, how tough, witty and angry she could be, a match for Oliver Reed's Gerald Crich. Rosamund Pike is no competition for Jackson; she seems out of touch with the proceedings much of the time. Take the famous horse and trucks scene: Gerald digs his spurs into his horse's flank (got to show the animal who's boss), while Gudrun shouts at him. There's fury in Russell's version, but none here; it just seems as though Pike's girdle is pinching her a little bit.
Rachael Stirling does better with Ursula, who is a vital, idealistic woman herself, the equal of her more spectacular sister. I regret the inclusion of the Skrebensky scenes from The Rainbow, they serve little dramatic purpose and eat up running time that could better be spent on Hermione, Ursula and Birkin, that awkward triangle. Rory Kinnear is effective as Birkin; the script shows rather than implies his homosexual leanings. I often wondered if Birkin's endless philosophizing about love and sex was just a way of throwing a smokescreen over his same-sex yearnings. It looks like the filmmakers agree with me. Gerald in the novel is a cardboard figure who represents the male principle: hard, unimaginative, domineering--we get it.
The lesser roles: Hermione is played by Olivia Grant who's not a patch on Eleanor Bron for Russell. Saskia Reeves as Anna Brangwen has some moving scenes. Tinarie van Wyk's part is adapted from the Pompadour café scenes; I wish it had been fleshed out, it showed promise.
