Jonathan Rhys Meyers Movie:

Editorial Review:
The BBC's lavish, glowingly designed adaptation of Mervyn Peake's eccentrically brilliant novels Titus Groan and Gormenghast is a triumph of casting. Ian Richardson's Lear-like depiction of the mad earl of a remote, vast, ritual-obsessed building is matched by the brutal pragmatism of Celia Imrie as his wife, the synchronized madness of Zoë Wanamaker and Lynsey Baxter as his twin sisters, and the duplicitous charm of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Steerpike, the kitchen-boy determined to take over no matter how many deaths it costs. John Sessions is surprisingly touching as Prunesquallor, the family doctor who realizes almost too late what Steerpike intends.

It is always tricky to film a book dear to the hearts of its admirers. Wilson and his design team achieve a look rather more pre-Raphaelite than Peake's own illustrations--shabby velvets, garish sunlight, and dank, stone passages. The score by Richard Rodney Bennett is full of attractive surprises--fanfares and waltzes and apotheoses--and John Tavener's choral additions are plausibly parts of the immemorial ritual of Gormenghast. --Roz Kaveney

Gormenghast [Region 2] Reviews:
Read the books first
2009-07-01 - As other reviewers have mentioned, this tv series is best viewed after reading TITUS GROAN and GORMENGHAST (I'd skip the third book in the trilogy--TITUS ALONE as it isn't anywhere near the standard of the first two books and the minseries doesn't cover it anyway). Watching the tv adaptation after reading the books was like listening to a series of in-jokes that I was in on because I'd read the books. It was intriguing and entertaining.

I only had two problems with it: 1) I wish they'd had the budget to truly do the setting justice. As it was, the sets felt like the background in those BBC Shakespeare play adaptations they make you watch in high school. And Titus Groan and Gormenghast were all about the setting. I remember feeling vertigo reading about the teacup rolling off the trunk of the tree growing out of side of the castle and falling hundreds of feet to the ground. That scene didn't work at all on tv. The tree looked fake.

2) Steerpike. I'm at a loss to understand why the powers-that-be cast such a conventional-looking actor long past his adolescence to play the 17-year old Steerpike. Steerpike, who, in a world of grotesquely ugly people is the most fantastically ugly of all. You only have to look at Peake's illustrations (Along with being a writer, he was one of the most successful professional illustrators of his day) to realize why Steerpike has such a chip on his shoulder. If you looked like that, you would too. His high, bony forehead, his narrow hunched shoulders that looked almost deformed. There's none of that in the Steerpike of the miniseries--they didn't even attempt to make him look ugly. Also, Steerpike is the driving force of the books. He's brilliant and ambitious and for most of the books, he's the most alive character in them. Not so with the miniseries. The actor didn't have the spark that made Steerpike such a compelling character. He looked too old and too normal to even hope to pull it off.

Like Dickens on acid directed by Dali
2009-04-08 - I read Gormenghast about 35 or 40 years ago and found it intriguing, quirky, and memorable. I also see that the book (actually a trilogy) has gained a cult following over the years.
As I watched the long (240 minutes) dvd over the course of several evenings, I glimpsed fragments of the book I remembered, but suspected, as other reviewers have pointed out, that some deviations, both in plot and flavor have been made. Same issue that fans of the Trilogy had when they apprehensively stepped up to see it. Had they ruined the classic?
In any case, it's an interesting dvd, worth looking at if you enjoy surrealistic fantasy. Actually, it's more like Dickens on acid directed by Dali.
The ending seems like a quick rap-up after a lengthy prologue (kind of like Dune did). Steerpike does Les Miserables, then a cheesy Phantom of the Opera transformation, Fushia does Ophelia from Hamlet, and Lady Gertrude does her turn as Queen Elizabeth. Who knows what Titus does? Parsifal, Jim Bridger, Tarzan? All of which I didn't remember, so I'll have to read the books again.

Horrible travesty
2008-12-15 - Most of the plot of the book is scrambled and changed, the book's mood and atmosphere is completely destroyed, and dialogues, events, and many characters are almost completely antithetical to those in the book, etc. It's almost, but not actually worthy of being called, a study in garbaging and dumbing down something originally subtle and profound into triviality and cartoon/comic book dimensions. Important aspects of many character's attitudes are changed or completely reversed, dialogues exactly opposite to those in the book are inserted at will, events are truncated and/or changed from something that had unique atmosphere and dimension in the book into brief trivialized escapades, such as Steerpike's escape from the room Flay locks him in early on, etc. The pity is that I assume the producer/writer/director think they are reworking the story without creating a total farce of the original book. It should be done again by a protege of Orson Welles a la THE TRIAL, with scenes in black and white alternating with those in color.
The further plot compression and accelerated scene sequences makes it for me not even worthy of calling it a farce. It's just horrible.

!
2008-11-10 - a really beautiful, faithful adaptation of the books. the characters and set are rightfully surreal, grotesque, and comical, and the series definitely captures the decaying quality of gormenghast. i only wish it could have gone on longer, and would have loved to have seen them continue with titus alone.

Fantasy Genre Revived
2008-06-23 - I ordered "Gormenghast" on the basis of the favorable reviews offered by other Amazonian viewers. Having only "perused" the Peake novels, I came into the Groan's world as a newbie, with no real expectations of liking, loving, or disliking the mini-series.

I was pleasantly surprised with the vigor and boldness of the direction. The wide camera angles, the purposely muted colors of all of the characters' clothing, all added to the trippy-dippy feel that is the daily life of Gormenghast.

It was interesting to see the huge view of the castle from the opening scenes (and throughout the film), then gain an almost claustrophobic feeling in the quite small bedrooms of the main characters. Metaphorically, it shows that although one may live in this large, open space, our inner sanctums are what's most important; the veritable fishbowl of life.

Zoe Wanamaker and Lynsey Baxter do a superb rendition of the "simple sisters," Ladies Clariss and Cora. Christopher Lee can do no wrong in any role he tackles (although for me, he is the quintessential Saruman of the LOTR trilogy). Although I do agree with an earlier reviewer that Neve McIntosh was a *touch* too mature to play Lady Fuchsia in parts 1 and 2, she's a welcome part of acts 3 and 4. Celia Imrie (who was fantastic in CALENDAR GIRLS) was virtually unrecognizable in her puffy suit. Even underneath all of that unattractive veneer, she gives an impressive performance. The young actors playing Titus convey a potent sense of loneliness and frustration over his lack of options in life.

This miniseries belongs to 2 actors though: John Sessions as Dr. Prunesquallor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Steerpike. Sessions' Prunesquallor is equal parts absurdity and calculating wisdom. But young JRM is a marvel (as always). Not overdoing it, chomping scenery, his Steerpike is a grasping, sucking, social climber, whom will let nothing (nor anyone) get in his way. This is possibly Rhys Meyers' strongest performance to date.

If you're a fan of sci-fi, this is an interesting work to pick up and view. Reading of the Peake novels isn't a prerequisite to enjoying "Gormenghast."