Far From the Madding Crowd

This review may contain spoilers!

This is without a doubt one of the worst period films this year. I would give Far From the Madding Crowd a 4.5/10.

What you have to admire about this film is the cinematography; it's a spectacular visual film and really it's quite artistic in the way it was shot.

Matthias Schoenaerts, who played Gabriel Oak, was a fantastic leading man; he had a very strong but subtle presence within this filme and always brought incredible emotion to every scene he was in. Jessica Barden, who played Liddy, was quite a great comedic character; Barden had a lot of chemistry with Mulligan and brought a high spirit to this film.

However the best performance easily came from Michael Sheen, who played William Boldwood. Sheen really put a lot into progressing his role from recluse to exuberant, nervous romantic. I think it took a lot to make a character so defined, he felt very natural and that natural feeling went hand in hand with his development as a character. Furthermore Sheen had incredible chemistry with everyone onscreen, his scenes always being the best. My particular favourite was the duet he had with Mulligan, he displayed an incredible voice that only added to his display of talent.

Despite it's great visuals this film was let down by it's blocky editing, poor cutting really took away from the aesthetic of the film. Furthermore the music wasn't great, aside from one duet scene between Mulligan and Sheen. The story itself was quite contrived with characters who often did acts that seemed very out of character, with a protagonist that wasn't very likeable or engaging at all. The film's pacing was incredibly bad with at least half an hour too much screen time.

Carey Mulligan, who played Bathsheba Everdene, was an awful protagonist; she constantly changed the way her role acted but in a way that wasn't so much character development as it was a complete undercutting of her own performance. Tom Sturridge, who played Sergeant Francis Troy, was an awful antagonist with a tendency to over-exaggerate his performance; his 'return from the dead' was a cringe worthy choice of plot development. Juno Temple, who played Fanny Robbin, was a character who served the plot when needed and otherwise had little presence; she was extremely frustrating as a character to watch.