'Brideshead Revisited' can't match classic 1981 miniseries

From the Department of Not Leaving Well Enough Alone comes a new film version of "Brideshead Revisited," Evelyn Waugh's classic novel, a book previously made into an 11-hour British TV series in 1981.

That series is one of the great examples of the long-form possibilities of miniseries television. It launched a whole raft of wonderful actors (led by Jeremy Irons), and it had choice roles for veterans such as John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier. It was, as they say, the final word.

But the producers of the new "Brideshead" have gone for a condensed, more explicit take on the novel. Of course, most two-hour movies based on novels are drastically condensed, so we must simply ask whether this version can stand on its own.

The results are mixed. This "Brideshead" has serious intentions, but it simplifies the novel's big issues.

The whole story is a flashback running through the mind of Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode), a soldier in World War II who recalls his days at Oxford in the 1920s, and the grand family he was invited into.

Coming from the middle class, Charles is intoxicated by his school friendship with the flamboyant Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whislaw), who is himself intoxicated most of the time. The Flyte family is incredibly wealthy and snobby, but Sebastian is clearly smitten by Charles, and he takes him into his world of plover's eggs and champagne.

This version of the tale more forcefully introduces Sebastian's sister Julia (fetching Hayley Atwell, from "Cassandra's Dream") as a romantic interest for Charles. Here, Sebastian takes this as a rejection, an event that sets into motion the other plot developments -- which is a misreading of the novel.

I like the novel and the miniseries just fine, but you always had the idea that Waugh -- a staunch convert to Catholicism -- was more torn than he would admit between the youthful hedonism (and heated male friendship) of the Oxford days and the religious sermon that creeps into the latter stages of the book.

The movie, directed by Julian Jarrold (whose "Becoming Jane" was a dopey invention about Jane Austen's life), hits too many things on the nail. Sebastian is more aggressively gay here, and the veddy British class issues are more clear-cut.

The young actors won't wipe away memories of the 1981 series, but Matthew Goode continues to impress (he was in "Match Point" and has an important role in next year's big "Watchmen" movie). Emma Thompson has a few splendid scenes as Sebastian's frosty mother, and Michael Gambon is terrific as her estranged, adulterous husband.

The movie uses the same distinctive location, opulent Castle Howard, that the TV show used for the Flyte family estate. This weird decision -- inviting direct comparisons to a pre-existing film classic -- is typical of this version's muddle-headededness. And it accounts for the weird sense of deja vu that hovers over this well-dressed but oddly hollow picture.