And the part of the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak has mystifyingly been given to the Belgian star Matthias Schoenaerts, who is uncomfortable in an English-language role. As the conceited Sergeant Troy, Tom Sturridge looks the part without conveying his febrile, egocentric quality – although the role is arguably underwritten, and Troy’s big fairground scene is cut. There is an outstanding supporting turn from Michael Sheen as Mr Boldwood, the neighbouring landowner who is to become tragically and self-laceratingly infatuated with Bathsheba, after she sends him an insincere Valentine card. She has a stronger, fiercer, more concerted presence than the ethereally beautiful Julie Christie in the same part. Her face has a pinched girlish prettiness combined with a shrewd, slightly school-mistressy intelligence – the sort of face that can appear very young and quite old at the same time. Carey Mulligan is Bathsheba, the headstrong young woman in late 19th-century Dorset who is to inherit a handsome farm. The famous swordplay scene is repositioned from an open hillside to a woodland in the gloaming.
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