Under The Greenwood Tree (2005)

Powerful

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This is a gentle adaptation of one of Thomas Hardy's classic novels. The script is very well done by Ashley Pharoah, who despite his name is not an illiterate Egyptian who can't spell pharaoh properly, but a Somerset person, steeped in Hardy's country and perhaps cider as well, who knows. Keeley Hawes plays the young schoolteacher and organist named Fancy Day who gets all the local men excited by coming to town and casting her spell over them without even meaning to. There is nothing like one of those demure beauties to get Hardyesque men's hearts a flutterin'. A lot of the film was shot in Hertfordshire, which is shocking, considering how much there is of the West Country crying out for more Hardy adaptations to be made where they were meant to be. But as the Americans (WGBH) were involved as co-producers, they must have insisted on a budget which could not stretch as far as Wessex, not appreciating from their foreign perch the difference between the real thing and a substitute. Nick Laughland, primarily know as a television drama director, has done an excellent job of telling this story simply and with charm. The story also features the replacement of the church gallery orchestra with a harmonium, a theme stressed by Thomas Hardy more than once in his writings. It obviously greatly grieved Hardy that the charming old style of music in the country churches with violins and bass fiddle was suddenly eradicated by the rude intrusion of a device known as a harmonium, which is a kind of portable organ. This was one of the examples of heedless 'progress' wiping out centuries of the real thing and replacing it with something deeply inferior and humdrum. But as we are always being told by the politicians and business magnates that progress always equals improvement, who are we mere ordinary creeping creatures that we are to doubt such wisdom from on high and give way to cynicism? The portrayal of the little church orchestra here is a moving illustration of what was lost in transition. And as for the love story, well, that holds us in suspense till the end. Upon whom will Keeley Hawes bestow her heart? Will she marry for money and social position and wed the local squire? Will she wed the vicar and travel to Venice, which she has always longed to see? Or will she choose the earnest local boy who adores her? Three marriage proposals are made, but only one can succeed. Will she choose aright?

Being in the mood for a period romance, I was a bit cautious when I realized this was an adaptation of a Thomas Hardy story. They tend to end unhappily, especially when there are divided love interests. Fortunately, Under the Greenwood Tree is light, even humorous, in parts. Truly I had no idea who Fancy would marry, the wealthy farmer, the austere parson, or the poor (yet brash and handsome) harrier. In the tradition of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, there is the mix of position, miscommunication, and the delightfulness of authenticity of period. A treat to watch. The acting, script, and setting all played well together. If you adore period romances, then this should go on your list to watch.

It is a long time since I read the book, and this movie version was good enough to inspire me to read it again. The acting was very convincing - for all the key roles. My two reservations are technical, First, I found it distracting that the setting was so very different from Hardy's Wessex - I understood Mellstock to have been a large village, the street-scape of the location used made it look like a town - and/or a French or Italian town at that. From this site (IMDB), I see that the filming location was Jersey, so that explains the continental connection, I guess. I appreciate that probably no Dorset village would pass for Mellstock, but I would argue that somewhere in the Cotswolds would have been sufficiently close to be accurate. Second, on the version I saw (PBS in the USA) the music soundtrack was so loud that it was intrusive. However, too loud music soundtracks is typical for PBS documentaries too - so perhaps this issue is not the responsibility of the original producer in the UK.I would probably vote higher than 4, were it not for my desire to counter the apparent ramping up of this movie's score by those associated with its production.

No attempt has been made to echo Hardy's humorous and deeply affectionate appreciation of the English countryside and it's people around the time that he was born.This is a trite and bland rendition of a novel that is rich and warm with a loving nostalgia for a way of life which the writer saw had disappeared into the Industrial Revolution.The story has been chopped and changed into a melodramatic, Victorian love story and the script is banal and cliché-ridden. The actors playing the rustic villagers do a good job but are let down by unimaginative direction, lighting and decor.The young lovers are ' cardboard cut-out '.The opportunity to make a wonderful ' English ' film has been passed over. The work suffers from Television companies' desire to sell soap powder as cheaply as possible.