THE LINE OF BEAUTY
THE LINE OF BEAUTY
December sometime 2010, DVD, Myrlin & Jeremy's living room, from Netflix
I don't remember the exact dates in which this 3-hour miniseries, of a sort, was viewed; I know I brought it over to dinner one night, we watched the first two parts, I got abruptly drunk and sleepy, and we had to postpone the end bits. Then, at the end of that same week, I unexpectedly found myself there again, and we were able to conclude the tale.
Adapted from an excellent book by Andrew Hollingsworth, with whom Myrlin became acquainted while pursing post-grad work in London, THE LINE OF BEAUTY concerns Nick, like his literary namesake from Gatsby a working-class fish-out-of-water amongst the wealthy, weird, and doomed. He takes up an offer from a school chum to stay at his family's palatial home on the edge of Hampstead Heath, which is not only a gorgeous classical park but also the site of countless sweaty gay hookups. Set in the very early 1980s, there is plenty of uncomfortable closeting (and uncloseting), too much coke and champagne, and the unavoidable spectre of AIDS getting in the way of all that sudden free love about. The family, the Feddens, are not only rich in that poncy public-school way, but also involved in conservative politics - or at least the dad, Gerald, is, buoyed up by the brittle support of his wife Rachel, played with creepy aplomb by Alice "Borg Queen" Krige. Gerald's played by the excellent Tim McInnerney, who has been great in everything I've seen him in from Blackadder to The Comic Strip Presents... to RICHARD III. Hayley Atwell plays an excellent Cat, the smack-addicted, posh, manic pixie dream girl who is actually mentally disturbed, though she takes Nick under her wing immediately and makes him her closest friend and confidant. Nick's friend Toby is almost never seen or heard from, and Nick becomes the new de facto Fedden son. Played by milk-skinned varlet Dan Stevens, Nick is a combination of toadying sycophant, cool observer, hopeless romantic, and complete idiot, so we know he's got tons of suffering ahead.
It's a very good adaptation, but like so many, has to leave its most delicate nuances behind. The gay sexxin' isn't shied away from, but nor is it romanticized, detailed, or made titillating in any way. That's really too bad; it'd have been nice to see just what stakes Nick is truly playing for, even if he does probably do so much cocaine it's a wonder his tool works at all.
December sometime 2010, DVD, Myrlin & Jeremy's living room, from Netflix
I don't remember the exact dates in which this 3-hour miniseries, of a sort, was viewed; I know I brought it over to dinner one night, we watched the first two parts, I got abruptly drunk and sleepy, and we had to postpone the end bits. Then, at the end of that same week, I unexpectedly found myself there again, and we were able to conclude the tale.
Adapted from an excellent book by Andrew Hollingsworth, with whom Myrlin became acquainted while pursing post-grad work in London, THE LINE OF BEAUTY concerns Nick, like his literary namesake from Gatsby a working-class fish-out-of-water amongst the wealthy, weird, and doomed. He takes up an offer from a school chum to stay at his family's palatial home on the edge of Hampstead Heath, which is not only a gorgeous classical park but also the site of countless sweaty gay hookups. Set in the very early 1980s, there is plenty of uncomfortable closeting (and uncloseting), too much coke and champagne, and the unavoidable spectre of AIDS getting in the way of all that sudden free love about. The family, the Feddens, are not only rich in that poncy public-school way, but also involved in conservative politics - or at least the dad, Gerald, is, buoyed up by the brittle support of his wife Rachel, played with creepy aplomb by Alice "Borg Queen" Krige. Gerald's played by the excellent Tim McInnerney, who has been great in everything I've seen him in from Blackadder to The Comic Strip Presents... to RICHARD III. Hayley Atwell plays an excellent Cat, the smack-addicted, posh, manic pixie dream girl who is actually mentally disturbed, though she takes Nick under her wing immediately and makes him her closest friend and confidant. Nick's friend Toby is almost never seen or heard from, and Nick becomes the new de facto Fedden son. Played by milk-skinned varlet Dan Stevens, Nick is a combination of toadying sycophant, cool observer, hopeless romantic, and complete idiot, so we know he's got tons of suffering ahead.
It's a very good adaptation, but like so many, has to leave its most delicate nuances behind. The gay sexxin' isn't shied away from, but nor is it romanticized, detailed, or made titillating in any way. That's really too bad; it'd have been nice to see just what stakes Nick is truly playing for, even if he does probably do so much cocaine it's a wonder his tool works at all.