Last night Kim and I finally got around to watching the last hour or so of Anthony Trollope's He Knew He Was Right, as envisioned by Romancing the Tome patron saint, Andrew Davies. We have to say, in terms of his past masterpieces, this one was a bit of a letdown. (Can't win ’em all.)
We enjoyed the first part of the movie, but couldn't help but wonder if the production ran out of financing two-thirds of the way in. How else to explain why they didn't bother giving us a wedding scene when there were no less than three to choose from? It seems like they raced to tie up the storylines in very anticlimactic fashion. The dramatic injustice of Aunt Stanbury refusing to let her niece marry Matthew Goode (say it ain't so!) lasted all of five minutes before the dowager had a change of heart. The demise of the deranged Louis Trevellyan seemed to happen even more quickly. There was a good "I'm gonna stab you all through the heart with this kitchen knife" moment from one of the French sisters, but even that story arc ended with a fizzle.
We attempted to watch a bad documentary about Anthony Trollope included on the DVD which featured very amateur reenactments and a lead actor sporting an appalling fake beard. Eventually, we lost interest and were lured away by red velvet cake. So in the end, our movie-watching night was still a success.
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