Bleak House (Special Edition)

• It has always been recognized as one of Charles Dickens's literary masterworks, but this Bleak House is now fast moving, daring, gripping television. Here is the murder mystery, the love story, the comic genius and the tantalizing scandal of the novel but, stripped of its sentimentality, we find ourselves swept along by a pulsating and edgy drama. Out of an interminable court case spin three young

Gillian Anderson stars in this dark thriller about a couple that embarks on a violent spree after surviving a gang attack. Driving back from a posh party at a country estate, Alice (Anderson) and Adam (Danny Dyer) find themselves brutally assaulted by a group of hunters. Physically and emotionally devastated by the attack, the tables suddenly turn when they discover the identity of their attackers. This time, it’s their turn to exact the ultimate revenge.The X-Files' Gillian Anderson give! s an impressive performance as a woman obsessed by revenge in this sleek and chilly English thriller by documentary filmmaker Dan Reed. Anderson is top-billed as a Brit businesswoman who invites the rough-hewn tech (Danny Dyer) who's installing her security system to a business party in the country. Slow-boiling sexual tension between the two to an erotic encounter in the woods â€" which is soon undercut by a savage attack by a group of local hunters, who rape Anderson and beat Dyer senseless. As they recover, viewers soon learn that the pair's trauma runs deeper than just the physical level â€" Dyer is emotionally shattered, and Anderson is gripped by a need to repay her attackers with violence more terrible than what they visited upon her. Though the plot occasionally veers into implausible territory, the couple's search for the guilty party â€" and the gruesome fate they have in store for them â€" is unnerving, and made all the more so by Anderson intense turn, which pre! sents a torrent of conflicting emotions raging just below her ! cool, po rcelain surface. - Paul GaitaHOUSE OF MIRTH - DVD MovieMeticulously adapted from Edith Wharton's 1905 novel, The House of Mirth may seem at first to be as dry (and as flat) as pressed flowers, but it's quickly evident that director Terence Davies and X-Files star Gillian Anderson (in a breakthrough film role) have tapped directly into the venality of Wharton's New York society. As the ill-fated socialite Lily Bart, Anderson perfectly conveys the understated wit and craftiness of a woman who knows how to play the game, and yet learns too late that it's loaded with ruthless, unspoken rules. Rising above the traditional crop of "marriageable girls," Lily is desired by any number of men who could ensure her place among the moneyed elite, but she deflects their courtship; lawyer Lawrence Selden (Eric Stoltz) is her true love but, tragically, his modest financial status leads them both into a cycle of unfulfilled romance.

Instead, Lily makes too many assum! ptions about her station, offending her aunt (Eleanor Bron), falling into a financial obligation to a manipulative investor (a curiously apt role for Dan Aykroyd), ostracized by a "friend" (Laura Linney), and refusing help from her most prominent would-be suitor (Anthony LaPaglia). All of these gaffes combine to forge Lily's downfall, and Anderson brilliantly captures the horror and confusion of a woman who is shocked when her expectations are no longer matched by her reality. Lily grows defenseless and dependent, and The House of Mirth evolves from stately reserve to become a devastating portrait of class cruelty. Heavy stuff, to be sure, but expertly crafted and blessed by Anderson's complex and heartbreaking performance. --Jeff ShannonIt has always been recognized as one of Charles Dickens's literary masterworks, but this Bleak House is now fast moving, daring, gripping television. Here is the murder mystery, the love story, the comic genius and the tantali! zing scandal of the novel but, stripped of its sentimentality,! we find ourselves swept along by a pulsating and edgy drama. Out of an interminable court case spin three young people, each seaching for their place in the world. The story moves fast - swirling through a incredible array of characters from passionate young lovers, from an ice-cold aristocratic beauty to a shrewd, relentless detective - until the final thrilling climax. With a screenplay by Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice), Bleak House features a galaxy of major stars from feature film, television and comedy.Andrew Davies isn't much of household name in the U.S., but he's the king of the BBC mini-series. His skillfully adapted scripts for Pride & Prejudice (the beloved Colin Firth version) and many, many more are peerless examples of classic novels done right--cunningly edited and shaped to let all the rich emotion and sharp intelligence spill over with zip and vigor. Bleak House is no exception; it's one of the best Dickens adaptations to date. The mini-series fo! rm allows Dickens' panoramic view, brimming with eccentric characters and complex turns of plot, to sprawl out without losing an iota of suspense or momentum. Two innocent young orphans (Patrick Kennedy and Carey Mulligan) are the potential heirs to a fortune, but their fates are snarled in a monumental legal battle known as Jarndyce and Jarndyce. But the heart of the story is another orphan, Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin), whose mysterious parentage proves to be intertwined with the fate of the Jarndyce wards and the aloof Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files). Dickens' story twines through an excoriating vision of the legal system to heartbreaking domestic drama to a murder investigation to near-Gothic horror, all broken into utterly delicious half-hour segments (after the hour-long opening episode). Martin is utterly beguiling, homely at one moment and luminous the next; Anderson's grippingly eerie and brittle performance will delight her fans. But! to single out anyone seems absurd, because every character--f! rom the vicious lawyer Tulkinghorn (Charles Dance, White Mischief) to the foppish parasite Skimpole (Nathaniel Parker, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries) to the simpering clerk Guppy (Burn Gorman)--is intricately drawn, all hitting a mesmerizing balance between caricature and stark emotional honesty. Bleak House demonstrates that humor, pathos, and social criticism can all be contained in one wonderfully entertaining package. --Bret Fetzer