Vanity Fair (DVD review)

Vanity Fair (2004) starring Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp, with a vast supporting cast of English character actors, some familiar, others not. In watching this movie, one gets the feeling that great swaths of the Thackery novel must have been left out to get it down to acceptable running time. Nevertheless, it makes for interesting viewing, sometimes amusing, sometimes tragic. Becky Sharp is a woman with no money and no title, living in England 200 years ago. She attempts to make her way in society with nothing but her beauty, wit, intelligence and ambition. She nearly succeeds. Reese Witherspoon seems an odd choice to play Becky, but she gets by. Her performance is adequate, not great. But the portrait of a society dominated by money and breeding is good enough to make this a recommended film. There's even a somewhat happy ending. Grade: B+