The book by Evelyn Waugh is a masterpiece with great characters and memorable situations. The mini-series beforehand was sublime, brilliantly acted and exquisite in the details not to mention faithful. Now I am not a purist or anything, but this film could and should have been so much better considering how good the book is.

Granted the settings and cinematography are exquisite as are the costumes. And the music score was quite nice as well. However, that's the only praise I can give unfortunately.

The main problem was the way the story was told. This story didn't feel like the wonderful, poignant story of Brideshead Revisited, instead it felt like a story full of paper thin characters, sketchy relationships and dialogue that sometimes took you out of the period. Yes the themes of forbidden love and loss of innocence are there but they are handled in a superficial manner. The acting is lacking too, Greta Scacchi is a good actress but she isn't beautiful or compelling enough, while Ben Whishaw is very uncharismatic with Sebastian being too effete and his development is rather rushed, and Matthew Goode is okay if stiff but his character could have been much better written and developed. Then there are great actors such as Michael Gambon and Emma Thompson who are wasted with underwritten characters, and Hayley Atwell is positively radiant but just so-so in her acting. In fact Patrick Malahide is the only one who acquits himself well.

Overall, a big disappointment but not absolutely unwatchable. 3/10 Bethany Cox

If you remember the acclaimed mini-series of Brideshead Revisited than you're already well acquainted with the Flyte family, it's head Michael Gambon, it's most Catholic mother Emma Thompson and their children. Unlike the mini-series the emphasis here is on outsider Charles Ryder and his connection to Julia as opposed to her brother Sebastian.

Charles Ryder here is played by Michael Goode and during World War II of all the country estates in Great Britain he's sent to the estate of the Flyte family where during the 20s he spent considerable time. He was taken there by Ben Whishaw playing Sebastian who is at Oxford with him. Whishaw is the unofficial leader of a group of upper crust gay students and he'd love to bring Goode into the fold. Goode however keeps Whishaw at hand's length while he courts sister Hayley Atwell playing Julia.

In the mini-series Ryder and Sebastian get involved, here they do not. But in any event Goode's non-Catholicism and his unwillingness to convert vetoes him in the eyes of Emma Thompson for entrance into the family. How it all works out for Charles Ryder is for you to see.

Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews created the roles of Charles and Sebastian for the mini-series and next to them Goode and Whishaw are all right, but just don't measure up. Still those enjoyed the doings of the Flyte family back in the early 80s should like this. And fans of this generation ought to check out the mini-series.

Class and Catholicism haunts Brideshead in this fast paced film version of Brideshead Revisited.

Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) is the lower class atheist who is enraptured first by the effete good time guy Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw) at university.

Later by his sister Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell) who becomes Charles's lover but she is never destined to be his wife.

When Sebastian brings Charles to visit his family's estate of Brideshead. Charles enters a privileged world. Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) a devout Catholic keeps her children highly wound up.

It is a visit to Venice to meet their father Lord Marchmain (Michael Gambon) and his long time lover where cracks appear between Charles and Sebastian as he gets closer to Julia.

Given the celebrated ITV series was 11 parts long. This compressed version co-produced by BBC Films had to cut a lot out of Evelyn Waugh's novel. It stills works remarkably well.

There are casualties such as the character of Anthony Blanche who is heavily truncated. Yet he still manages to make an incisive comment about Charles's social climbing aspirations. It bitterly offends Charles.

At the end, you feel this is really a haunted house story. The Marchmain's are the ghosts with their religious fervour which no one can escape from.

Ryder does escape mainly because he is banished. Not flexible enough to embrace Catholicism. He loses his woman and the house.