The Best Intentions

About twice the length of the cut down feature version, the original mini-series has much the same feel, and all the same strengths – terrific acting, a wonderful sense of time and place, two complex lead characters who can be so endearing one moment and so infuriating the next.

Ingmar Bergman's autobiographical script has much of the same richness as "Fanny and Alexander", that classic just about picks up where this story leaves off.

If this isn't quite at that level of brilliance, if it doesn't match that masterpiece for range and depth, it certainly is a terrific piece of storytelling in it's own right. And if Bille August can't match Bergman as a director, he at least gets in the ball park, without feeling like he's aping another's style.

The 4 part series does drag a bit compared to the feature, but the novelistic richness of character and detail balances that out. Both versions are very worth seeing.