This adaptation, set in London of 1910, boasts a star-studded cast that includes Haley Bennett, Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders, Jack Whitehall, Sally Phillips and Lily Allen. Bennett plays astronomer Katharine Hilbery who has to overcome patriarchal attitudes and her parents urging her into an engagement with family friend William (Whitehall).
It took me a while to warm to this drama with comic edges. Maybe I was still reeling from the epic England v. Mexico game on the morning of the showing, but more likely it was Tina Gharavi’s overly fussy direction. Shaky handheld camera can work, but this is not a Bourne movie and it was just distracting. Fortunately, Justine Waddell’s screenplay about Katharine’s struggles to muscle her way into the man’s world of science amidst the burgeoning suffrage movement is complex and compelling.
Also, the starry cast delivers. Bennett is an actress I have admired for a while and she grasps the opportunity for a rare leading role. With an impeccable English accent, she embodies her character’s doggedness and vulnerability. It is no surprise that Spall is brilliant, showing a soft side to his bluff exterior, but I did not expect a luminous Lily Allen to be so good as a woman who falls for William.
Waddell also deserves credit for toning down the romantic elements of the story, though they remain the weakest part of it. But this is, on the whole, a very good adaptation.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10