The Way We Live Now: In Bed with Matthew Mcfadyen & Cillian Murphy

This week I spent some time recovering from my recent travels by lolling in bed with the first DVD of Andrew Davies' adaptation The Way We Live Now on my laptop. The always timely subjects known as greed and obsession are at the heart of Anthony Trollope's novel which centers around British speculators and a railroad to be built between Salt Lake City and Vera Cruz. Watching the characters get caught in a web of deceit reminded me of this recent New Yorker article, this, and of course this.

Davies, whose recent Bleak House mini-series earned rave reviews from anyone who's anyone among people who care about that sort of thing, does an excellent job of escalating tension as the drama unfolds. The cast includes P&P's Matthew Mcfadyen, who is in fact so excellent as the louche baronet Sir Felix Carbury that I hardly recognized him, as well as the very pretty Cillian Murphy pictured above, Miranda Otto, and Shirley Henderson. Can't wait to watch the rest. Also, I still have yet to see The Reckoning even though it is a well know fact that I love movies about cute, conflicted priests (even the presence of Shannyn Sossaman can't spoil that for me). But Matthew Mcfadyen apparently co-stars--another reason to finally see it. --Kim