Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair is an opulent costume drama based on the novel of the same name by William Makepeace Thackeray. The film tells the story of Rebecca Sharp a young woman of no particular birth who yearns to be accepted in the best society and uses he charm and her wiles to elevate her position in early 19th century English society. As such this is not a story that appeals to the masses. But for those who enjoy complex witty dialogue, rich costumes, and formal manners this is a passable film.

I know that the film has been lambasted for not staying true to the original novel. The Becky Sharp as Thackeray writes is a heartless social climber who cares for no one but herself. Here Reese Witherspoon makes Becky not only charming, but a reasonably kind person trying to hold onto love and find a place in society. It is Becky’s love for her husband Colonel Crawley and her best friend Amelia that make her an endearing character whose travails we care about. Were her marriage to Colonel Crawley be just a means to give her the social stature she desires with no real feeling for her husband, as in the book, the audience would be less willing to invest their interest and their sympathy into Becky. Of course the downside to this is that a clever and pointed personality is somewhat blunted. Witherspoon plays Becky nearly straight with less of the cunning and guile that Thackeray’s Sharp possessed and less than the other characters in the film give her credit for.

As with many of the stories of the time the film is overpopulated with sheltered families each with a distinct class and position I society. To today’s audience this is archaic at best and confounding at the worst. Though the film attempts to easily mark Becky’s passage through the social strata one family at a time the early parts of the film are a confusing blur of family situations. There are a number of notable supporting roles notably, Gabriel Byrne as the mysterious and dangerous Marquess of Steyne, Rhys Ifans as the devoted and kind William Dobbin, and Bob Hoskins who chews up the scenery with relish as the unkempt Sir Pitt Crawley.

In part the character of Becky Sharp reminds me of that quintessential female film character Scarlet O’Hara. Like Scarlet Becky has a massive thirst for life and ambition beyond her means. Also like Scarlet Becky is a dangerous woman in that she employs her femininity to ensnare unwary men. For both characters people are drawn to them because of their confidence and presence even if they are not the nicest people in the world. Becky is smart and educated and witty but she uses it to cow tow to the wealthy and parry favor with the elite. Her skills, her beauty, and her charm beguile the classes, mainly the men, as she charms her way up the social ladder.

As is always the case, Becky loses the things she holds most dear in the film, her family. In the novel, since she did not care for these people the loss is not felt that painfully. But in the film Reese Witherspoon exhibits great agony as Becky loses both her son and her husband. It is more than just her loss of stature and the creature comforts in life that plague Becky Sharp but we know that her indomitable spirit will succeed in the end. What the movie shows most clearly are the limited roles that women were allowed to play in society and the fine line between propriety and total ruin. Thackeray used the novel to showcase the ironic morality of the British class system. Here Mira Nair uses the story to showcase the beauty of Indian culture as perceived by the British ruling class.

Weir drapes every inch of the screen in the richness and color of India that may or may not have been so readily prevalent in British society of the time. The theory, I believe, being that the trade in India would have sent many of the fabrics and oddities back to the mother country. The costumers deserve credit not only for producing an amazingly lavish and textured English society but for dealing well with a lead actress who is visibly pregnant through the majority of the film. Reese Witherspoon was four months pregnant when filming began and it is a credit to her that she performs admirably hiding her growing stomach under yards of cloth.

Thus Vanity Fair is a feast for the eyes and it holds true enough to the book to be a pleasant experience for the mind as well. This film is not for everyone, think chick flick, but it is in turns romantic and dramatic. Those in the mood for a doomed love story and some beautiful colors could do much worse in the doldrums between the summer blockbusters and the winter Oscar nominees.