Softer than Thomas Vinterberg’s previous film, The Hunt, this adaptation may appeal more to Jane Austen fans than it might admirers of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel.
Independent Bathsheba (Mulligan) inherits her uncle’s once prosperous farm that has fallen into disrepair and makes brave changes to ensure its financial stability. In typical Hardy fashion Bathsheba is a proto-feminist, stating that she "will never be some man’s property." Some moxie for Dorset, 1870. Her mother calls her 'wild' as her daughter revels in nature and the freedom it offers - inside the first five minutes Bathseba has fondled a horse, a cow, a dog, and a lamb. As she tells one suitor, she will not be tamed.
This is why she rebukes first shepherd Gabriel Oak’s (Schoenaerts) kind but business-like proposal in her kitchen and, later, lonely middle-aged bachelor William Boldwood’s (Sheen) polite but desperate offer of marriage in his staid sitting room. And it’s why she responds to dashing sergeant Francis Troy (Sturridge) when he grabs and kisses her in a meadow without so much as a by-your-leave. But Troy has the moustache of a bounder and so Gabriel hangs around the farm to keep an eye on Bathsheba while Boldwood waits for his chance to propose again…
While Vinterberg keeps things elegant and classy, observing events from a respectable distance, the style undergoes a noticeable change when Troy appears in that red uniform; the images become less sharp, the framing becomes tight, zooming in on his lips – at one moment the camera (Mulligan’s POV) has to pull itself away from his gaze lest she/we faint. The film looks gorgeous with Vinterberg shooting outside, and against a warm sunset/misty sunrise, as much as possible. The time lent to the unlikely friendship of Gabriel and Boldwood is a welcome surprise. In fact it’s Sheen’s Boldwood that is given the most depth, but that could be down to the actor’s tender and understated performance.
However, Vinterberg is in too much of a rush, failing to get across the passage of time and why and how feelings have changed between characters off camera (it comes in a full 48 minutes shorter than John Schlesinger’s 1967 version). The farm is on its knees, then successful, then failing again without explanation. A vibrant romance suddenly turns sour when the groom doesn’t listen to a warning about an impending (and largely metaphorical) storm – is that enough to harbour doubts about a true love? There are moments of artificial drama too with writer David Nicholls (One Day) forcing the film into emotional moments, where, despite Schoenaerts and Mulligan’s obvious talents, the leads can’t deliver.
