The Way We Live Now (2001)

I elected to view this BBC adaption of the 1875 Anthony Trollope novel of the same name for two main reasons, 1) I read an article in Time magazine roughly 5 years ago that stated that the novel, despite being well over a century old and set in England , can be taken as an uncannily accurate critic of American society in the early 21st century, and 2) a kind of fascination with diminutive Scottish actress Shirley Henderson and her distinctively odd voice.

The story is a soap operatic tangle of plots lines, featuring much pettiness, avarice, and unrequited love, this thing is just loaded with love triangles. Everything centers around the character of Augustus Melmotte (David Suchet at his slimiest), and the effects his arrival in London has on the large cast of characters. Augustus Melmotte is an Austrian banker who has just fled the Continent with his wife (Helen Schlesinger), daughter Marie (Ms. Henderson) and faithful assistant Croll (Allan Corduner). They leave behind them much rumors and a failed bank. Augustus has decided to shed his old Continental ties and fully embrace becoming what he terms a 'true English genetlmen'. This pursuit entails banishing German from the home, cultivating powerful friends, and even aspiring to become a member of Parliament. While a corpulent, uncultured, rather disgusting person Melmotte does have two things going for him, all the money he brought over from Europe, and an extreme talent and telling people what they want to hear. It is these two advantages that bring much of London society into his orbit

There is Paul Montague (Cillian Murphy) a earnest and ambitious young man seeking funds to construct a railway in Mexico, about which he feels very passionate. There is lady Cardbury (Cheryl Campbell) a widowed writer just trying to maintain the appearance of long squandered wealth and her womanizing deadbeat sun Sir Felix (Matthew Macfadyen) and marriageable daughter Hetta (Paloma Baeza). Ms. Cardbury wants Hetta to marry her cousin Roger (Douglas Hodge) who has long been in love with her, but Hetta doesn't love him but instead loves his friend Paul, who loves Hetta but is pursuied from America by an ex-fiance the widowed Mrs. Hurttle (Miranda Otto). Felix meanwhile fixates on Marie for her money while continuing a side dalliance with the naive Ruby (Maxine Peake) whom Roger's longtime employee Miles Grendall (Angus Wright) pines for. Then there is the land rich but cash poor Longestaffs, Felix's friend Lord Nidderdal (Stuart McQuarrie), politically ambitious news paper publisher Mr. Alf (Rob Bydron), good hearted Jewish banker and widower Mr. Breghardt (Jim Carter) who loves Georgina Longestaffe (Anne-Marie Duff), who is desperate enough to get married she might just defy her father (Oliver Ford Davis) and marry outside the faith. As well as sundry other characters.

These stories highlight the chasms between what we want and what we have, between what the heart wants and what society deems proper, between expectation and reality. Mr. Melmotte promises easy money for all when he takes up Paul's railway scheme, but instead of putting money into the actual work he invests it elsewhere in what amounts to a pyramid scheme, always try to grow an illusionary stock bubble. One of the things I liked about this movie is nobody gets off entirely clean, though some of the characters do manage to redeem themselves, other don't, and those who do find there happiness at the end do so largely by the goodwill of others who actually stand there moral ground and defy societies expectations. This is a long production, four parts and five hours, it has to do a lot of setting up, but eventually it takes on a self propelling energy as imaginary castles fall and folks have to deal with the consequences. A solid, intriguing work, with a great cast, but not as good at generating interest in developments early on as I'd have hoped. ***