Tess Part 1

Masterpiece Classic has returned for 2009 with a bang! Tess of the d’Urbervilles premiered last night and the gritty adaptation did not fail to impress. Anyone who is accustomed to Austen and earlier costume dramas might have found little to squeal over in the way of visuals (I am still adjusting to the late 19th-century rural garb, expecting someone in a muslin gown to walk around the corner), though the scenery of “Wessex,” Thomas Hardy’s fictional countryside named after the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that once existed there in south/southwest England, is gorgeous.

Tess is a truly tragic novel, and the film has so far captured the raw emotion brilliantly. Some have stated that the first hour or so was lighthearted, but for anyone who has read the work, every action and mistake that occurs portends the disasters to come like painful pinpricks near a wound. It’s coming, it’s coming, was all I could think from the moment Tess and Angel looked into each other’s eyes. The sense of inescapable misfortune is unmistakable.

[This] is Thomas Hardy, the British author for whom human tragedy is a fine art. Hardy is the maestro of bleak atmosphere and depressing coincidence, and soon enough the PBS “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” begins its irrevocable slide toward sorrow. Storm clouds gather in this two-parter, which begins Sunday at 9 p.m. on Channel 2, and they linger, and they thicken, and finally they rain down on those with good and evil intentions alike. (Boston Globe)

Gemma Arterton was great, if a little too pretty for her own good. The distinction between the “Leah’s” and the “Rachel” were made perfectly clear. The novel’s plot has been left, refreshingly, untarnished. There was a name change (Groby is actually the owner of the farm at Flintcomb-Ash, which will appear in Part 2, not a worker on the d’Urberville estate) and the issue of Tess’s “seduction,” which is not made clear in the book; was she raped or did she simply give in to the domineering Alec? Clouded in fog, the details aren’t apparent, but the director clearly intended it to be rape scene.

Hans Matheson was an excellent Alec, brimming with pent-up evil and desire; one is repulsed by his dangerous aura, yet his charm is eerily captivating. Where every move on Alec’s part is an attempt to seduce Tess, Angel’s interactions with the poor girl are honest and heartfelt. Eddie Redmayne portrays Angel’s ebullience and enthusiasm for life wonderfully, and he does a terrific job of stealing one’s heart. The flooded-lane scene was especially well done. Hardy ties up the lives of his characters with neat bows that emphasize the inevitable tragedy, and so far the film has captured that classic Hardy well.

Part 2 will air on PBS Masterpiece Classic on January 11 at 9 pm Eastern. If you missed Part One, you can watch it online here until January 19.

Ms. Place of Jane Austen’s World has written a wonderful summary and review of Tess Part 1 here.

~ by Lady Ashley on January 5, 2009.