Carrington

Rufus Sewell played Mark Gertler

Emma Thompson played Dora Carrington

Jonathan Pryce played Lytton Strachey

"Carrington" is my least favourite Rufus film. Although it was touted as a "true story", the facts are quite different from the realities of the artist Carrington's life - something that this film has in common with another Rufus film loosely based on truth, i.e. "The Honest Courtesan".

Frankly, although Rufus did a good job as the frustrated Mark Gertler, something didn't quite work, apart from the fact that I could not for the life of me imagine any woman (Emma Thompson) throwing over such a virile man as Gertler for the abominably crusty homosexual Lytton Strachey. If Strachey had had some attractive qualties like a sense of humour, fair enough, but he was quite loathsome to me (I suppose a sign that Jonathan Pryce brought some artistry to the role!).

The story however just did not ring true and although I have watched it several times hoping to find some positive qualities in it, I never find it convincing, despite all-round good acting efforts.

From Jenny, Pennsylvania USA

I first saw this film on a plane going to London – it was Virgin Atlantic where the tiny screen is in the seat in front of you, so I couldn’t get the full effect of the film. It wasn’t until after I saw the ending credits that it really hit me and I realized that Rufus was Mark Gertler.

To be honest, upon first viewing, this film annoyed me. I thought it rather slow-paced, tedious, and to be honest, I couldn’t make out what they were saying much of the time. A few times I was tempted to change the channel, but the other film being shown was Mr. Holland’s Opus, which I dreaded even more (I eventually saw it and discovered I was right).

A few months later, back home, I came across Carrington in the video store and thought I would give it another go – it was very hard to concentrate the first time on the plane, what with the obligatory crying baby in front of me and the absolutely immense gentleman sitting in the seat next to me (I, unfortunately, was in the middle) who asked if he could put the arm up – dummy that I was, I said “yes”, to which his rolls of fat proceeded to spill over onto my seat. My mother, who sat on the other side of me, did not sympathize with me while we were ON the plane, however, we happened to be behind this gentleman in the Customs line, and once she saw the great expanse of his behind, she was extremely and appropriately apologetic. Believe me, having to readjust to fit my own not-so-small butt in less than one-half of the tiny airplane seat did not make for a pleasant movie-viewing experience.

As such, I thought that in order to be fair to Emma Thompson, who is one of my fav actresses, I should give Carrington another go. Was I glad that I did! I found this film wonderful – tragic, haunting and beautifully acted by Emma, Jonathan Pryce, Samuel West, and of course, Rufus. His righteous indignation over Carrington’s repeatedly putting him off was played with the proper amount of restraint – you could literally see him seething – but he refrained from pushing it over the top, which I believe a lesser actor would have easily done with this character. My initial observation about the slow-pacing was not unfounded, but I didn’t find it nearly as tedious as I had the first time I saw it.