Madame Bovary (2015)

Emma (Mia Wasikowska) leaves the convent to marry boring country doctor Charles Bovary (Henry Lloyd-Hughes). Life is dull. She flirts with awkward law clerk Léon Dupuis (Ezra Miller) and has an affair with the dashing Marquis d'Andervilliers (Logan Marshall-Green). She spends outrageously beyond her means and lecherous Monsieur Lheureux (Rhys Ifans) is too willing to give her credit. Monsieur Homais (Paul Giamatti) is the pharmacist friend.Everybody speaks softly especially Mia. Her dull life is filmed in long scenes which only accentuates the dullness and infects the movie with its dullness. At least, the dullness is quite convincing. Mia needs to pierce that dullness with more powerful passionate acting but she is going for callous and wanting. She is still the heroine. It's all very subdue. I'm no literary person and maybe she is supposed to be this way. I can't comment on the accuracy of the depiction. It would be more compelling for her to embrace the darkness. It is beautiful in a moody sunset period piece way but it doesn't have the exuberance. It's kinda dull.

Why? Do-overs of a classic such as this are unnecessary when the original stands so far above this lackluster spiritless tale of milk toast. It begs the question why anyone would be drawn to this M. Bovary, unrecognizable as Flaubert's reckless and wild Emma. I could go on but why?

I like the film. Finally there exists a version done by a woman showing with sensibility the few choices of life for women in the 19th century. I thought the actors and actresses were perfect in their role. In the end, Madame Bovary finds herself without friends and solutions. She understands how naive she has been with men and has no woman friend. Her whole world has collapsed. She can only choose nature as her ultimate friend.I feel that in this version, Flaubert's book main message is being respected. It is mostly about a woman wanting to experience all the pleasures of life and not being able to do it. Because of herself as well as because of her environment.

Not expecting too much from this movie I was hoping to be surprised. Well I was. It was worse than I thought. Boring storyline, which has been done to death with these types of period pieces. There was no real point to any of it really. Just a few romps in the sack, with some passing fantasies of M Bovary, and that was it really. In the main she was the totally frustrated and bored housewife, but not quite as much as I was just watching. Scenery and cinematography wasn't even enough to lift the spirits. Throughout the film I was expecting a sudden change of pace or a dynamic twist to ramp up the whole affair, but somehow it just meandered along at such a sluggish pace, I openly admit I did nod off, much to my wife's annoyance. I would gladly give this movie. big fat zero, but have to settle for a 1/10. Dreadful.