cnycitylady Review of Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008)

The Best Film Adaptation of any book

[10/10 · 27 December 2012]

BBC has done it again, and has out done any and every other book to film translation they have ever done. With their Tess of the D'Urbervilles mini series they elegantly translate the book and all of its intricate characters beautifully on screen. Gemma Arterton was perhaps the only person in the world who could capture the beauty, innocence and tenderness that is Tess Durbyfield and Eddie Redmayne was the manifestation of Angel Claire himself. The chemistry between the two actors could not be found or duplicated anywhere else. They were so true to the portrayals of the characters that you would think that they were actually in love with each other if you were to meet them in the street. BBC usually stays true to the book changing very little and only if they have to, but here for Tess of the D'Urbervilles they change almost nothing and if such changes were implicated it would literally take an expert on the book to point them out. The character Alec D'Urberville was brilliantly splashed on screen by Hans Matheson; He captured the unctuous character in his entirety, with his "smooth" and "charming" persona which is really just slimy and abusive. The scenery was almost an exact replica of what was described in the book and all of the supporting characters were spot on in their performances. I especially loved the love scene between the two lead actors, it was flawlessly filmed and directed and never will you see a more tender love moment in a movie. Overall the mini series Tess of the D'Urbervilles was...well...perfect! I loved the book, it is one of my favorites (despite the poor abuse Tess goes through and the sheer unfairly harsh life she has) and I usually say the book is better than the film, (as most readers say) but in this case I say that I don't know which is better. So if you have to read this book for class, or for whatever reason and you really don't want to, just watch this series. You will get all of the information, you will get all of the suffering, love, longing, desire, hate and forgiveness just as well as if you actually sat down to read it. BBC never disappoints, but after watching this I feel as if my expectations for all other book to film translations will have skyrocketed, leaving me forever disappointed. And I thank BBC for giving me a glimpse of perfection.