Doctor Thorne

Somehow Julian Fellows has managed to take one of Trollope's better books and turn it into a romance novel. All the psychology and wit that Trollope brought to his books is gone; what's left is a basic soap opera without any charm or energy. Still, the costumes are marvelous, the cinematography solid, and the acting good (although the actress playing Mary is not quite up to the task of competing with her more accomplished cast). But what really rankles is Mr. Fellows himself, introducing and then exiting from each episode with a startling degree of pomposity and pretentiousness that would make him a stock character as the fool in any Victorian novel.