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The Jealous God [2005]
![The Jealous God [2005]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BQCAJBKYL._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £1.36 (subject to change)
Crushing disappointment
Review date: 2008-08-05 Rating: 2 out of 10
If you've read the book and loved it (as I did), don't go out of your way to watch this (as I did). steven woodcock has spectacularly missed the point of the novel. All the searing emotions, the conflict and contradiction, the raw humanity....all gone. What you're left with is a lightweight, facile "drama" which is closer to a particularly poor episode of Heartbeat than it is to the novel. The jumbling of the plot doesn't work at all, the taking of dialogue from one place and putting in another fails badly and the casting is all wrong (no disrespect to Denise Welch, but if a woman of that age had fallen pregnant in the early sixties it would have been an outrage and a miracle). What's worse is that in the extras the "writer" seems to think he's improved on the original! People get sectioned for less.
I only hope some other director can make another version of this, closer to the original. And the one star I have given this film is really as a consolation to Jason Merrells and Mairead Carty, who emerge with some credit for battling gamely with such a dead duck.
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Reviews
A Very Good Adult Drama
Review date: 2006-08-11 Rating: 10 out of 10
I remember reading the original novel written by John Braine: (Room at The Top) many years ago, and I was pleased to see that this film version is more or less faithful to the novel since it is set during the 1960s. Jason Merrils plays a quiet shy school teacher Vincent Dungarven who lives with his religious Catholic, fiercly protective mother. He meets in a library an attractive young woman Mairead Carty and develops a sexual relationship with her much to the disapproval of his family due to the fact that she is a Protestant and divorced. Moreover, he then drifts into a brief affair with his sister in law (the superb Denise Welch) who then becomes pregnant. The circumstances force Vincent to revaluate his life and beliefs and he realises that for the first time in his life, he has to decide what is best for himself rather than to conform to his mothers beliefs and values. I do not think there is one bad actor or one bad scene in this film. Its a human story of values and passions. A wonderful human drama which I am sure many viewers may have experienced themselves.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Jason Merrells
Mairead Carty
Pamela Cundell
Denise Welch
Andrew Dunn
Creators:
Jason Merrells (Primary Contributor)
Denise Welch (Primary Contributor)
Gordon MacGregor (Cinematographer)
Steven Woodcock (Producer)
Steven Woodcock (Writer)
Heidi Stiene (Editor)
Julie Woodcock (Producer)
John Braine (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Odyssey Video
Manufacturer: Odyssey Video
EAN: 5050824203878
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-02-20
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 90 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005-09-09
Language: English (Original Language)