I Capture the Castle is a rather fascinating film with a cast of well-known British Actors and Actresses, could well be viewed as Romola Garei's breakthrough performance. Released by BBC Films in 2003 and based on Dodie Smith's book of the same name (she later wrote 101 Dalmatians). It probably didn't even cause a blip on the international movie radar, but it hopefully with Garei's career taking off (and this review!), it might start to get the attention it deserves.

The film is about a small family in rural England, headed by acclaimed writer James Mortmain (Bill Nighy) - who has unfortunately had severe writers' block for 12 years now. He has a somewhat dubious past as well and a fragile temper. His new wife, not mother to his children, is intriguingly named "Topaz", and played by Tara Fitzgerald. Her name may be something she decided on herself - she is a very artistic sort and sometimes can only feel free when she... um... takes off her clothes. (Though her stepchildren do like her, this causes them significant embarrassment!) She is unhappy that she is unable to properly pursue her art outside of the city, and also saddened that she obviously does not provide her husband with the needed inspiration.

More than those two though, the story is about their children - brainiac son Thomas (Joe Sowerbutts, the voice of Harry Potter in the first Harry Potter video game apparently) is quite funny but rather peripheral as the story mainly focuses on his two older sisters- the vivacious and flirtatious Rose (Rose Byrne) and the less obviously attractive but obviously more intelligent Cassandra (Romola Garei). In her own words, ("I look a lot prettier when I'm not standing next to Rose.") Their lives are a bit chaotic already, with a family financial crisis that can seemingly only be solved by a flood of inspiration for James or one, in true Jane Austen style, by of the daughters getting married to a rich man. The chaos starts to get out of hand when rich Americans Simon and Neil Cotton (Henry Thomas and Marc Blucas) turn up and passions become inflamed. Or is it just the desire to marry into money that's behind it all? Rose doesn't make a good impression at first but after a while one of the others seems to be interested... then married is proposed... then Cassandra comes to realise that she's in love with the same brother... the other brother appears to hate Rose... the hunky Gardener (Henry Cavill) proposes to Cassandra... oh, isn't young love just so confusing?!!?

Though it gets a little bogged down in places, overall the movie keeps things flowing smoothly enough and the characters, particularly the interaction between the characters, is intriguing. With so many emotions flying with seemingly inevitable outcomes, Heidi Thomas' screenplay manages to throw in a few surprises including a really unexpected turn of events at the end. (In some ways it seems a little disappointing that two of the characters don't end up together - but really it was the right ending if you think about it.) There is some nice humour to help things along and Tim Fywell shows a sure hand in the Director's Chair. All of the acting is top notch - it's difficult to pick out anyone in particular really as everyone was good, but as Garei's character captures our attention more than others, it's her performance that you'll probably remember most. Those who have seen Atonement will think they are looking at the exact same character - with the film set in the same era, she looks almost identical in the two films, though in this her character is rather more in control of her destiny.

The rating for this film varies quite dramatically across national borders - in the UK it's a PG, in Canada a G, but in the US it's got an R rating. The reason for this is evidently the differing views of nudity in the different countries, with the US board taking a much stricter view of it. The whole thing essentially boils down to one short topless scene with Tara Fitzgerald - she's standing out in the rain "being free" when the Americans show up. This leads to an amusing scene where one brother is trying to be diplomatic about the woman they saw outside, while the other is rather more blunt. When Topaz comes inside an realises who they are, she mutters something about "going upstairs to get changed" - she's wearing a raincoat by this time. The scene lasts a few seconds and the most shocking thing about it was the realisation that Tara Fitzgerald has no bust at all. That said it really wasn't necessary and I've seen films being given a 12A rating (equivalent to a PG-13) for less - then again many 12A films have a lot more in these days. I'm divided over what rating would be been more appropriate, but probably would have opted for 12A / PG-13 myself. Rather than being proof of the right or wrongness of the decisions different countries take, it is an example of how inconsistent the ratings actually are. (I wouldn't want that job myself though so I'm not really criticising!)

Other than that there's one scene with Garei taking a bath and one with her sunbathing naked (must have thought that her stepmother was onto something with this feeling free motif), but you don't actually see anything in either scene. Fitzgerald does take her clothes off on one other occasion but you only see her part of her legs - with an embarrassed Cassandra sitting next to her not knowing where to look for best! (Apparently Garei had a very hard time keeping a straight face when this scene was shot!) There are also a couple of scenes of domestic violence, which were not graphic and were absolutely necessary to the plot. As far as I can remember, there was no bad language at all in the movie. So, whatever the rating this film has in your country, I think the above information should give you enough to know whether you'd be offended by it or not.

I couldn't find a complete soundtrack listing for this movie, but at least some of it is by Debussey (original music is by Dario Marianelli, who also did the music for Atonement) - but all of it's very good and fits the mood of the movie very nicely. From my little knowledge, even the origianl music seems to be in the style of Debussey - which is a very good thing!

It's an interesting film, a character study with a lot of emotional depth, and features some very good performances. I wouldn't say it was a brilliant film - it was absorbing at times but just a little too laboured in others - but one that's well worth watching.

Runtime: 113 minutes - perhaps just a tad too long.



DVD Features

There are no extra features on the DVD to speak of apart from an interview with Romola Garei. I was quite shocked to hear her London accent (such a familiar sound to me for the first 25 years of my life!) - she sounds so refined in the two films I've seen her in so far, but the broad Londoner she is in real life sounds much like any other teenager from the city... "I was like, you know, etc etc". Ah well we can't all speak proper all the time now can we?!? She had read the book before landing the part as Cassandra in I Capture the Castle, so didn't have to work on the character at all really - she already knew her from the novel. I'm not actually sure who it is doing the interview with her, but they seem to take delight in asking her questions about how she felt doing her first ever screen nude scene, what she thought of Tara Fitzgerald's nude scenes, and what scenes she'd messed up during filming. The interview is quite choppy, not very well edited, but at least all the questions and answers at complete. It starts off with asking how she liked working with Bill Nighy ("He was so, like, you know, awesome"), talking about the most emotional scene, the part where Cassandra keeps her father imprisoned to try to get him to write, and progressed from there to the nudity - and then more questions about nudity. Which is a little odd because, as mentioned above, there was actually hardly any nudity in the film! Only really a great extra if you're a Romola Garei fan, otherwise it's relatively interesting but nothing exciting.


Availability

I'm not sure how easy it is to find outside the UK, but it is listed on Amazon.com so I wouldn't have thought it would be too hard to get hold of.



Links

Romola Garei played a somewhat similar character in Atonement

Bill Nighy played Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Rose Byrne was very good in Troy.


See also: My Top Ten Movies of 2003 - I think I might have to find space for this one somewhere in that this...


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This review was an entry to my Good Movies Write Off

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older