Far From The Madding Crowd (2015)

Far From the Madding Crowd is one of those rare romance films that I actually really enjoyed; it is also one of those rare romantic films that doesn't fall into complete cheesiness and unbearability (I'm looking at you Twilight). I have to say that from the moment I saw Far From the Madding Crowd in cinemas, in the beginning of May I thought that this was a very solid and wonderfully done piece of work. Firstly Carey Mulligan in the lead role is absolutely fantastic; she has definitely redeemed herself after she starred in the way over-hyped, unbelievably crass, tastelessly horrible, and just completely unbearable "Inside Llewyn Davis" which I'm still personally trying to recover from, it's 2015 and I still haven't recovered from that utter porridge last year. Anyway Carey Mulligan is fantastic in this movie; she does a fantastic job at portraying Bathsheba who ultimately wants independence, and she does a fantastic job at showing her independence throughout the entire film. There's one scene in which Gabriel Oak is cleaning sheep and he says that this isn't a woman's job, but then Bathsheba heads into the water and begins to clean the sheep as well; this demonstrates that she doesn't need help and all that she wants is to be an independent individual. There are many other situations like this portrayed throughout the film which demonstrates her wish for independence exceptionally well. You also sympathise with Bathsheba as the movie develops her character really well in this movie; you begin to get more sympathetic with her as you get deeper and deeper into the movie. All the other actors do a really good job as well especially when we get into the stages where Bathsheba has met all of her suitors and they're all trying to win her heart; Matthias Schoenaerts as Gabriel Oak has to be my favourite suitor as he is the suitor you root for the most, and ultimately you want him to be with Bathsheba. Gabriel Oak comes in at the beginning of the film; whilst all of the others come in gradually as the movie goes on, this is of course due to the fact that the movie needs to demonstrate to the audience that all Bathsheba wants to be is independent first. But when the other 2 suitors appear in the later stages of the film the actors who play these suitors do a very good job at playing them; there are times in which you do consider that maybe these other suitors might be better for Bathsheba than Gabriel is, this is a really hard thing to pull off especially when the audience already considers Gabriel should be the one to be with Bathsheba. So I have to give props to the movie for making me have other considerations; despite the fact that I sympathised with Gabriel Oak most. When we get into the later stages of the film it becomes a very interesting piece of filmmaking; this is when Bathsheba has met all of her suitors and they're all trying to win her heart. What's so interesting about this stage of the film is that I like seeing what these suitors are willing to do in order to win the heart of Bathsheba; in some cases a couple of suitors have a brief clash with each other because they know what they're all trying to do, whilst these clashes are very brief in nature they do lead to some interesting consequences and it holds you're interest as you want to know what's going to happen next. The fact that you also care for the characters brings in an element of concern for the characters when these interesting sequences occur, and again I have to say props to the movie for that. Although the majority of the movie is really interesting the first third of the movie is rather boring and could be cut down slightly; I understand the fact that what the first third of the movie is trying to demonstrate is that all Bathsheba wants is independence, but I just wished that they made the first third of the movie more interesting than it was. Plus if it was slightly shorter then it would be a much stronger first third than the one we got; it's functional but rather slow and boring. Finally although this is a personal view on this situation I do generally feel like that there was a possibility that the suitors could have come into the film earlier on than they did; this would have personally made the first third of the film more interesting than it was. I personally don't think that doing this would have harmed the first third of the movie's purpose, and I think that by doing this it would have been a much stronger and solid first third than the one we ended up getting. Overall I do recommend that you see Far From the Madding Crowd; definitely watch this if you're going to watch a film with your boyfriend/girlfriend as it's really good for that kind of audience. Better yet you should watch this no matter what kind of audience you are because I do feel that this movie is appealing to everybody; like I said I'm not the biggest fan of romance films but this is definitely one of those rare gems that I really enjoyed. The slow and boring first third of the movie may put you off but everything else in this is just fantastic, and worth the watch. I'm going to give Far From the Madding Crowd a tall and strong 8 out of 10.