Middlemarch review/thoughts

Recently we watched George Elliot's Middlemarch (1994).  Now, I've never read the book and have only seen it once before, years ago; so I was almost watching it for the first time. 

The main thing that stood out to me was the gorgeous cinematography.  Middlemarch has a very vivid, Victorian, magic-realism style to its filming.  It uses color-grading very carefully, and does not limit itself to one style/theme.  Maybe there was influence from the Sherlock Holmes TV series--Middlemarch has the same look, only richer and on a bigger scale.

On a similar note, I loved the scenes in Rome, because I could just imagine it was an adaptation of The Marble Faun (Hawthorne).  There are even characters that look like Hawthorne's--Dorothea, Miriam; Ladislaw, Donatello; etc.

The main characters themselves are rather aggravating.  I liked Ladislaw (the painter) the best, which isn't saying much.  On the other hand, the Dickensian "multiple-plot & mystery" was very interesting.  The main thing I didn't like about the plot was due to the script--there wasn't enough time spent on the main romance (i.e. the couple who get the final kiss), and way too much time spent on the others. 

The story seems to be mainly about bad choices.  Unhappy marriages are the main feature.

The mystery was kind of skimmed-over.  It felt more like it was "there", without being very important in itself.

Some of the supporting characters are quite good...Fred, Mary, and the uncle (Dorothea's). 

Despite the misery of various characters, the characterization feels lacking in something.  Probably because one doesn't come to care much about the characters, and when bad things happen, it's not as emotionally affecting as in, say, a Dickens or Gaskell story.  Middlemarch seems to suppose to be character-driven, but the characters aren't driving and the plot's barely strong enough to take over.  There is no what you might call a strong character...good, evil, or otherwise.  I personally find this to be exceedingly unrealistic.

Overall, though, I still enjoyed Middlemarch; it's a good one to re-watch, once in a while.  I'd recommend it for the cinematography, if nothing else.