Review of French Lieutenant`s Woman, The

Introduction

The 1981 film The French Lieutenant`s Woman earned five Oscar nominations and won two Baftas from ten nominations and is based on John Fowles` novel

The movie tells story about love and despair, set in 19th century England. Jeremy Irons stars as the successful biologist, who is engaged, but falls in love with the village outcast, played by Meryl Streep, known as "The French Lieutenant`s Woman".

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and was of surprisingly high quality, providing one of the best looking transfers of a 20 year old movie that I have seen for a while. The picture is rock steady, crisp and colourful, with plenty of detail and no grain or dirt.

Visually, the film is very well made, with convincing period locations and costumes, all of which are well presented on-screen.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and provides adequate reproduction of the soundtrack. The audio in the movie consists mainly of dialogue, and the film would not have benefited from a multi-channel remix.

The dialogue itself is well presented, at a reasonable level compared to the sound effects and Bafta winning music, and is clear throughout the film.

Features

Extras are very thin on the ground, with only the film`s trailer on offer.

Conclusion

Overall, The French Lieutenant`s Woman is a well made film that has a strong cast and an interesting plot, but is for the most part boring, despite the added plot twist of two stories being told simultaneously, but 100 years apart.

Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons are utterly superb as Sarah/Anna and Charles/Mike respectively, and Streep rightly earned an Oscar nomination for her performance, which is simply mesmerising at times. Similarly the supporting cast are excellent, but the strong personalities and several excellent scenes don`t help the long sections of the film that are too slow and ponderous. The end result is a film that was highly rated by many when it was released, but other than the strong performances has little to offer twenty years down the line.

Excellent picture quality and good sound on the disc are let down by the lack of extras, so this disc should be added to the "one to rent" list, particularly as it doesn`t encourage repeat viewing.