The Go-Between (2015)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Turning 13 is never easy, but for Leo it's far more than his own burgeoning puberty that entangles him. His curiosity about the ways of love is confounded by his lack of father, so he turns to a young farmer on the estate where he is summering. His lower social status already makes him a fish out of water at the sprawling English estate, so the eldest daughter's attention and care for him is most welcomed. As the story progresses, his burgeoning feelings for her and curiosity about the unspoken mechanics of "spooning" begin to take a heartbreaking turn. He is caught in the midst of a Romeo and Juliet tale that leaves him feeling torn by his friendship with all the parties involved. Leo is a heartbreaking character, but also relatable. A beautiful movie to watch, definitely recommend.

The TV adaption of The Go-Between is excellent. Dare I say it? Yes, why not – it was far more enjoyable than the book.Yet the drama was faithful to the book in nearly every respect. It didn't need to change much because, at its heart, The Go-Between is a good story with some fascinating characters. The story relates the experiences of a 12-year old boy from somewhat straightened family circumstances who spends his summer holidays with a very wealthy school chum at his grand home in the Norfolk countryside. He is 'used' as a messenger between a wealthy young lady, (the school chum's elder sister), and her working-class, tenant farmer lover. This leads to some predictable consequences – given that the sister is betrothed to the local Lord, who has ugly facial scars from his time in the Boer War.The film spares us the unlikely contemplations of the boy messenger, but allows us to watch him as he slowly comes to realise that the business between the two is not really 'business' business, but 'love affair' business.It is particularly poignant because our little hero has developed a boyhood crush on his chum's sister and on top of this he has become a bit of a snob. He thoroughly disapproves of the clash of classes and he wants her to marry the ugly Lord.The film is brilliantly acted by one and all. I have not come across any of the actors before, save the wonderful Jim Broadbent who plays a cameo role as the boy some fifty years later.The camera work of the grand house, the characters in their Victorian finery and especially the Norfolk countryside is mesmerising. Somehow, the cinematography brings to life a long- forgotten era of England during the years before the First World War; when walking and horse carts were still the main form of transport, and a time when everyone still kowtowed to the Lord of the Manor.So much was to change so soon – as the 'boy' recalls when he returns to the area for the first time, some 50 years later. Search for this TV drama on DVD or legal download and enjoy it. But skip the book.

The fragile fabric of memory that engages us in the novel is entirely lost in this highly disappointing and ham-fisted adaptation, which mistakes simplification and over-dramatisation for subtle adaptation.The opening ten minutes glide artistically through the first third of the novel in a strangely muffled and demure fashion which, whilst capturing something of the surreality of Leo's past world, entirely loses the tension and careful character dynamics that the novel develops so fluidly. By the time we come to the sight of Ted's peachy buttocks disappearing into the lake, therefore, we have been handed a rather muddy and crude palette. The basics of the story are there, but we reach them strangely isolated from the charming and sympathetic naivety of Leo's perspective. We feel entirely too privileged as an audience. This is because, in skipping over the opening exchanges, the film has had to make its narrative rather too obvious. Marian and Ted never attempt to disguise the purpose of their letters, meaning that Leo's eventual discovery of their supposed secret seems empty. Leo's interactions with both, hampered as they are by stale dialogue and half-obscured by a profusion of lens-flares and abstract music, loosen his emotional attachment to the situation, and so we lose our sympathy for his innocence. Consequently, by the time of the cricket match, the action has descended into posturing, empty one-liners, and dirty looks between Hugh and Ted, whilst Joanna Vanderhamm's hilariously half-bleached eyebrows wriggle more and more desperately in an attempt to retrieve some emotional depth.I didn't reach the end - the damage had already been done.

'The past is a foreign country: They do things differently there.'What a great opening line and it belongs to the novel which this is adapted from. It got me immediately hooked.What also helped was an astonishing performance from actor Jack Hollington who played Leo.The film starts with Leo as an old man (Jim Broadbent) going back to revisit the summer of 1900 which had a profound effect on his life.As a 12 year old boy he went to stay with a well to do school friend Marcus and his family, it becomes apparent that Leo is from a more modest background and has to adjust to a society of privilege and wealth.Leo is struck by the beautiful Marian who is due to be engaged to Viscount Trimingham (Stephen Campbell Moore) and therefore set herself up for life. However he has been disfigured in the Boer War and Marian has been having a passionate affair with tenant farmer Ted Burgess (Ben Batt smoldering like a younger Rufus Sewell for all his worth.)Leo is used by Marian and Ted as a go-between carrying secret messages between the two, yet he also used to convey messages between Trimingham and Marian.Leo realises even at his tender age that the affair between lowly Ted and Marian is doomed and also he has been used by Marian. Her kind acts to get new clothes for him had ulterior motives.It was a fast moving adaptation, very much cut down from all the flab. It kept the class divisions subdued, even Trimingham a war veteran aims to have cordial relations with his tenants in the estate but definitely wants to win the cricket match against his farmers.Lesley Manville gives an icy performance as Mrs Maudsley, Marion's mother who suspects what she has been up to but hell bent on her marrying Trimingham. Even Trimingham suspects she is not entirely his hence why he would like Ted to join the army.I have not seen the 1971 film version but I guess seeing Julie Christie and Alan Bates together again would probably had taken my mind back to their earlier pairing in Far from the Madding Crowd which kind of has a few superficial similar plot elements.There is a coda at the end as the older Leo encounters the older Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) which rounds off the story. Leo however is still haunted by the past.