I Capture the Castle
by Tim Fywell
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DVD details
Actor: Bill Nighy, Marc Blucas, Romola Garai, Rose Byrne, Sin?ad CusackDirector: Tim Fywell
Producer: Anant Singh
Producer: Cleone Clarke
Producer: David M. Thompson
Producer: David Parfitt
Producer: Keith Evans
Writer: Dodie Smith
Writer: Heidi Thomas
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-12-23
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of I Capture the Castle
DVD Review: Beguiling period piece and a poignant coming-of-age drama
Summary: 4 Stars
I have yet to read the novel upon which this movie is based, so I can only comment on the movie itself. I enjoyed it and thought that both the female leads, Romola Garai and Rose Byrne delivered commendable and credible performances.
The story itself is a coming-of-age story set in 1930s England - the movie begins via flashback as a once successful writer [Bill Nighy] moves his family [2 young daughters and a wife] from London to the countryside, taking up residence in an old castle which they lease from the owner. A decade passes and the writer is still struggling to overcome his writer's block - the movie progresses with narration by his younger daughter Cassandra [Romola Garai who also shone in "Daniel Deronda"], a 17-year-old with a talent for writing. It is Cassandra who makes candid observations about her family, now almost destitute with no income to live on. The family has lost the mother [died], and her place is taken by bohemian stepmother Topaz [Tara Fitzgerald,], an artist and free spirit who likes dancing nude in the rain. Rose [Rose Byrne] is the older sister, beautiful yet troubled, and there is also a much younger sibling, a boy who seems unperturbed by the deprived circumstances the family lives in.
Things change when a pair of brothers come to visit the estate - the older Simon [Henry Thomas] is the heir to the estate and Rose, much aware of the opportunity at hand is determined to become his bride. The younger brother Neil [Marc Blucas, most famous as Riley in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series] thinks both sisters are nothing better than gold diggers. Their mother is portrayed by Sinead Cusack, who is marvellous in her brief role, spouting wry observations in each scene she appears in.
The rest of the drama follows the girls as they get more deeply embroiled in matters of the heart with some predictable outcomes. Both Romola Garai and Rose Byrne share credible chemistry as a pair of siblings who are as different as night and day, yet very much connected to each other. Their performances carry the movie for the most part - though the romantic element is also a major part of the movie, it is the struggles of the sisters that drew me in the most. Though the movie starts off on a light footing, it gets darker as the movie progresses, exploring the characters in depth and adding more substance to an otherwise tepid plot.Various themes get explored, some more convincingly than others, but it kept my interest.
The cinematography perfectly captures the lush beauty of the English countryside and on the whole, I'd recommend this to fans of British period dramas.
DVD Review: I Capture the Castle
Summary: 5 Stars
Romola Garai is very cute and fresh. B.B.C drama is very good.DVD Review: Boring compared to the book
Summary: 2 Stars
I dont have to go into what the movie is about. There are enough comments that explain the plot, etc. It was not faithful to the book that much. I HATED THE CHOICE OF ACTORS. The dad was a good actor, but as for the main charactor Cassandra? Hated her. I did not picture the actor as her. It was horrible and boring to watch IF YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK. I like the feel of the movie. It was smooth and well directed, but whoever chose the actors sucked. That is my main issue.DVD Review: I Capture the Castle
Summary: 5 Stars
I love Romola Garai. Everything movie she is in is good. She seems to pick perfect scripts with great story lines. This movie really "captures" you and lets you get involved with each person in the film. Great acting! DVD Review: I suffer the boredom
Summary: 1 Stars
I Capture the Castle (Tim Fywell, 2003)
I Capture the Castle was adapted from what may be the most awkwardly-titled young adult novel of all time, and TV director Tim Fywell's lack of insistence that the godawful title be changed should tip you off that awkwardness comprises a good deal of what you're in for with this exceptionally odd adaptation. First off, why shut out most of your built-in audience by making an R-rated adaptation of a young adult book? Why make it worse with some of the strangest casting decisions in modern filmdom? Why not at least try to whip it into some sort of shape that readers of the book might recognize? Well, to be fair, it's quite possible they did that; that may, in fact, be the source of all the awkwardness. Let the viewer decide.
Cassandra Mortmain (Atonement bombshell Romola Garai) and her odd family-- older sister Rose (28 Weeks Later's Rose Byrne), father James (Pirates of the Caribbean's Bill Nighy), and stepmother Topaz (Brassed Off's Tara Fitzgerald)-- move to a crumbling castle in the country so James, a previously successful writer with a decade-long case of writer's block, can finally start working again. The problem is, it doesn't work, and a couple of years down the road, the family are penniless. Enter the Cotton family, who own the land on which the castle stands. The two brothers, Neil (They's Marc Blukas) and Simon (Deadbirds' Henry Thomas), capture Rose's eye, and she sets her heart on marrying one of them to pull her family out of poverty. Thus begins a melodrama of manners.
And melodrama it is; nary a chance to overnarrate, overact, overdecorate, or overdirect is passed up. Even at less than two hours and being based on a novel, the film is brutally slow-paced. One wonders what swathes of prose got cut to make this screenplay fit to time, and whether all the book's actual action, plot furtherance, and character development was contained in it. (That's actually not a bad guess, as much of what goes wrong with novel adaptations usually has to do with one or more of those three aspects getting cut; it's a rare thing all three fall by the wayside, however.) The sole bright light in all this is Romola Garai's performance. For all I know, she's overacting in every scene, but relative to what's around her, it at least seems understated and heartfelt. Other than that, though, and Tara Fitzgerald's character's propensity to go dancing naked in the dark, I couldn't find a single reason to keep watching this film, save to spare those of you who've never seen it before the same boredom I suffered. *
Description of I Capture the Castle
When her family moves into a glamorous castle in the English countryside, Cassandra (Romola Garai) imagines great things will happen. But the decaying castle loses its appeal as her novelist father (Bill Nighy, Love Actually) develops writer's block and her mother dies of cancer. From this sad beginning, I Capture the Castle turns into an utterly engaging coming-of-age story as 17-year-old Cassandra and her older sister Rose (Rose Byrne) struggle to win the attentions of their new American landlord (Henry Thomas, E.T. The Extraterrestrial)--but when everything goes the way Cassandra hopes, her hopes fall apart. Garai's wonderful performance carries the audience through bittersweet discoveries about life and adulthood with hope and yearning. The entire cast---also featuring Tara Fitzgerald (Brassed Off) and Marc Blucas--is superb. I Capture the Castle is an absolutely lovely movie, delightful and surprisingly wise. --Bret FetzerComedy DVDs
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