Interesting backstory of D.H. Lawrence and Frieda Weekley in the early 1900s is marred by a contemporary story of an adult female student in Nottigham who meets a male student. While the current couple talks about Lawrence (they basically add no insight or information) they flirt and talk.
Meanwhile, the real story shows a young Lawrence grappling with ill health and a boring teaching job when he meets the aristocratic Frieda who is stifled in a Victorian marriage. The two are drawn to each other but realize that any sort of liaison will mean she has to give us her three children.
The story ends in 1912, before the onslaught of World War I, as the couple have made their decisions. In a few year Lawrence would be hounded out of England because he could not serve and because Frieda was a German national and a woman who had abandoned her children. Eventually they would end up in Taos, New Mexico, where they would be free.
Kenneth Branagh is excellent as the young genius who tries hard to escape his working-class roots and write stories about truth and beauty. Branagh has an exceptional moment when he recites the poem "Violets." Helen Mirren is also excellent as the willful Frieda who dares to give up everything to love Lawrence. Older than Lawrence she acts as a lover and a mother figure.
In the contemporary story, we get Alison Steadman as a dowdy students and Philip Martin Brown as a guy on the make. They are totally boring and unappealing and intrude on the real story. My guess is that they are supposed to set the story of Lawrence and maybe act as a contemporary version of "a man and a woman." They fail at both.
Also good are Benjamin Whitrow as Fried'as aloof husband, Ernest Weekley, and Norman Rodway and Alison King as the Hopkins, as an avant garde British couple who spur Lawrence on to find his own truth in love. Hopkin was a leading intellectual of the day and his "open houses" combined robust discussions of politics, religion, art, and literature.
As good as Branagh and Mirren are, stick with 1981's PRIEST OF LOVE for the best biopic on Lawrence.
Meanwhile, the real story shows a young Lawrence grappling with ill health and a boring teaching job when he meets the aristocratic Frieda who is stifled in a Victorian marriage. The two are drawn to each other but realize that any sort of liaison will mean she has to give us her three children.
The story ends in 1912, before the onslaught of World War I, as the couple have made their decisions. In a few year Lawrence would be hounded out of England because he could not serve and because Frieda was a German national and a woman who had abandoned her children. Eventually they would end up in Taos, New Mexico, where they would be free.
Kenneth Branagh is excellent as the young genius who tries hard to escape his working-class roots and write stories about truth and beauty. Branagh has an exceptional moment when he recites the poem "Violets." Helen Mirren is also excellent as the willful Frieda who dares to give up everything to love Lawrence. Older than Lawrence she acts as a lover and a mother figure.
In the contemporary story, we get Alison Steadman as a dowdy students and Philip Martin Brown as a guy on the make. They are totally boring and unappealing and intrude on the real story. My guess is that they are supposed to set the story of Lawrence and maybe act as a contemporary version of "a man and a woman." They fail at both.
Also good are Benjamin Whitrow as Fried'as aloof husband, Ernest Weekley, and Norman Rodway and Alison King as the Hopkins, as an avant garde British couple who spur Lawrence on to find his own truth in love. Hopkin was a leading intellectual of the day and his "open houses" combined robust discussions of politics, religion, art, and literature.
As good as Branagh and Mirren are, stick with 1981's PRIEST OF LOVE for the best biopic on Lawrence.