Vanity Fair

(2004, Dir.: Mira Nair, with Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy, Rhys Ifans)

Director Mira Nair came to our screening of Vanity Fair for a post-film discussion; she was charming and witty and personable and I came away wanting to recommend her latest film. I can’t, though.

Some of the flaws start with the cast. Reese Witherspoon is among the better young actors, but while she ably embodies the rakish aspects of Becky Sharp, she fails to give the character the depth necessary for the scope of the story. This is particularly evident toward the end, where the weight of events should be showing on Becky’s face, but don’t. Emotional closure is denied. Equally, James Purefoy’s Rawdon Crawley is naughtier by reputation than by presence.

Nair’s biggest problems, unsurprisingly, are with the plot. Nair is able to sustain the story for the first half of the film, which contains some of its best moments, including Eileen Atkins stealing scenes as the dowager Lady Crawley. But even streamlined as it no doubt is, Nair efforts to juggle the various plotlines eventually show strain: a subplot involving Becky’s childhood friend and her (overly) patient would-be amour vanishes for such a length its absence becomes awkward.

There are things to appreciate about Vanity Fair—aside from Atkins, Rhys Ifans sounds a perfect note as the long-suffering Dobbin (no relation, presumably, to Harry Potter’s Dobby) and Nair puts a convincing and colorful, yet grimy, early 19th-century London on screen—and all in all it’s a pleasant enough way to pass 2-plus hours, but it’s rather like being at a buffet where none of the choices are completely filling.