'Brideshead,' revisited

BY JOHN ANDERSON | Special to Newsday

6:49 PM EDT, July 23, 2008

Felicity Jones as Cordelia Flyte, Hayley Atwell as Julia Flyte, Emma Thompson as Lady Marchmain and Matthew Goode as Charles Ryder in Miramax Films " Brideshead Revisited " (Nicola Dove / Miramax Films)

One of the great English novels of the 20th century and one of the best-remembered mini-series of that genre's golden age, " Brideshead Revisited" is a story of ideas -- which makes it, to say the least, unfashionable.

But fashion and accommodation are what the story's all about, as guileless Oxfordian Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) is seduced, first by the flamboyant Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw), then by his family home of Brideshead, a heaping mass of stone and recriminations, a symbol of all that's intractable and cruel in Waugh's fated romance.

In compressing the story -- about fundamentalist faith, love, homosexuality, adultery and salvation -- director Julian Jarrold has shown a deep understanding of its echoes, as well as its relevance to today's world. He might not have done it all quite so airlessly -- sometimes "Brideshead Revisited" has all the invigorating freshness of a humidor. But the performances are precise and true -- Goode is a perfect choice as Charles, Hayley Atwell brings just the right mix of sensuality and guilt to Julia Flyte, and Whishaw, as Sebastian, is a human pirouette. They also seem more the proper age to play these mischievous socialites, although it's really all perception ( Jeremy Irons was 32 when he played Charles; Goode is 30).

Sebastian is far more overt in his gayness, something Waugh kept shadowy, as did the series. More significantly, Charles' attraction to Sebastian -- whose resemblance to Julia was a great point of Waugh's and has always been the fulcrum of the Charles-Julia affair -- is made more overt and allows the story to be examined in new ways. Which should be the point of remakes in the first place.