This film feels to me like THE depiction of the Brontes for our age. It is compelling each time I watch it (3 times now). I found the approach to a "historical" period so refreshingly vibrant and earthy as well as being strikingly filmed it's almost like a hyper real rendition of the time rather than the chocolate box visions we are often given. I've noticed a theme in several reviews asking why the film is so focused on Bramwell, when it is supposed to w about the women? I HATE it when this male centric approach to EVERYTHING happens due to our still malecentric world. However in this film's case I think it was exactly right and was used as a tool to show how very dependent the women were on the men in their lives. The users were safe while their father was alive, but having no legal right to hold property or money of their own their lives were in peril due to the solipsistic self destructiveness of their brother. In stead of showing 3 insipid women relying on men as is usual it showed 3 strong intelligent women whose social status and wealth were manacled to Bramwell's with no recourse to their independence. So I think to say the film focused on him too much is to miss the point Sally Wainwright was making. A couple of American reviewers have said they could not understand the film and to them I would say: put the subtitles on. The film uses northern dialect/accent as would have been spoken (and still is). If the characters spoke received pronunciation it would have sounded ridiculous and lost some of its heart. To take a reverse example I loved "The Wire" but in the beginning found I could not understand half of what was said, subtitles allowed me to enjoy it without it being artificially "smoothed" for general viewing. So basically I think this film is excellent. I loved the very end sequence of transition too. It made me feel so close to the characters.
