Michael Winterbottom seems to be a bit obsessed with Thomas Hardy. It’s a good thing, because no one else is. Hardy hasn’t enjoyed the constant popularity — and accompanying film projects — of fellow English writers Jane Austen and William Shakespeare.
Winterbottom finds Hardy more of an inspiration than a master to copy slavishly, though. After adaptation Hardy’s novel “Jude the Obscure” into 1996’s “Jude,” the director turned “The Mayor of Casterbridge” into “The Claim,” moving the action to America. Now he has made a film even more loosely based on a Hardy classic. “Trishna” moves “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” to India, and to the contemporary age. It’s a worthy experiment, even if it doesn’t quite work. Melodrama simply seems too melodramatic these days.
Freida Pinto is the doomed young woman of the title. Her marked beauty will give her a chance to rise out of her poor circumstances — only to find that it cannot keep her out of them for good.
| On screen |
| 2.5 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed |
| Director: Michael Winterbottom |
| Rated: R for sexuality, some violence, drug use and language |
| Running time: 117 minutes |
Forced to become her family’s breadwinner after her father has an accident, she takes a job at a hotel owned by the father of a rich young man raised in England and newly resident in Rajasthan. Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed) seems to offer Trishna everything modern. But the Westernized young man ends up treating her not unlike the way her primitive father does.
After meeting her for the first time, when he attends a party at which she’s working, Jay might call after Trishna, “Email me.” But the changing times haven’t changed the power men can still hold over women — especially in a place like India, where the struggle to survive is more important than the struggle to gain respect.
Winterbottom was probably wise in thinking the only place the shocking drama of “Tess” might still seem tenable is a country that is only reluctantly moving into modernity. Pinto was certainly cast right, too: The “Slumdog Millionaire” actress can’t help but give off a sort of sweet naivete, no matter what era she’s playing in. Ahmed has the right combination of charm and brutality, but the script doesn’t quite explain how he can move from one to the other so quickly.
“Tess” was very much a novel of its time. Those times have changed — though, as Winterbottom does manage to show here, not as much as we think.
