![]() ![]() Increasingly lonely and melancholic, Ms Fanning must do most of her emoting with her eyes, which are often red-rimmed or welling up or, for special, extra sadness, both. This is probably the nature of the beast but, still, you’d occasionally like to beat it with a broom, while imploring: ‘Get on with it! We’ve got homes to go to!’ The script is intelligent and witty, as you’d expect from Ms Thomson, but rather sparse. Indeed, the action almost grinds to a halt at certain points - can we now go back to Denmark Hill? can we? - as the piano valiantly tinkles on. ![]() (The eventual annulment was the talk of Victorian society a splendidly juicy no-sex scandal.)ĭirected by Richard Laxton, Effie Gray is in no great rush. On their wedding night, when she drops her nightgown, he immediately marches from the bedroom, past her naked body, and that is that, for the full five years of their marriage. She wants to care for John, support him in his work, darn his socks, have his children, but is cruelly rejected at every turn. She wishes only to be a good wife, as dictated by the mores of the day. Ukraine’s next move: can Putin be outsmarted? Yes, yes, yes, but can we now go back to Denmark Hill? I suspect such roles are a walk in the park for Walters and Suchet, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable. I could watch Walters and Suchet being wonderfully vile not just all day, but all week, which presents something of a problem: whenever they are not on screen, you long for them to return. They dote on John, their only son, deem him extraordinarily special, cannot accept a daughter-in-law, and basically tell a bewildered Effie to Effie Off. His parents are wonderfully vile, like grotesque Roald Dahl characters before their time. Ruskin (Wise) had known Euphemia ‘Effie’ Gray (Fanning) ever since she was a little girl, had wooed her from when she was 12, and married her when she was 19, immediately taking her from her native Scotland to live with his parents (Walters and Suchet) in Denmark Hill. But it feels as if it is missing something crucial, and I don’t just mean a stiffie. It’s a cast you could watch all day, whatever, which is handy, as this is probably quite dull otherwise. So it is period drama heaven, in this respect. It stars Dakota Fanning, Ms Thompson herself, plus Julie Walters, David Suchet, Greg Wise, James Fox, Derek Jacobi and Robbie Coltrane. Effie Gray, which has been written by Emma Thompson and recounts the doomed marriage of Victorian art critic John Ruskin to his teenage bride (he refused to consummate it), has a blissful cast. ![]()
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