Amazon.com

"It is not enough that your actions are good. You must take care thatthey appear so." This is one lesson that plucky orphan Tom Jones (Max Beesley, adead ringer for Ewan McGregor) never learns, charging through life with his chinup and his libido unchecked. With tongue firmly in cheek, narrator HenryFielding (John Sessions) walks us through this randy satire like a tour guide,proffering introductions and amusing observations as he tours the drama. Beesleyis all charm and earthy sincerity as handsome Tom, with Samantha Morton adetermined, elegant, and deliciously funny Sophia and red-faced Brit stalwartBrian Blessed (Black Adder) as her blustery, bellowing pater. Comparisonsto Tony Richardson's hearty interpretation are inevitable: this 1997 miniseriesfavors dry wit and understated asides to Richardson's knockabout comedy and highenergy, and it's a delight from start to its improbably (and delightfully)contrived conclusion. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Great Fun!!!!!!!!!
A&E is excellent when it comes to making mini-series, and Tom Jones is a prime example. The characters were very well cast and the screenplay was very well written. It was a joy to watch. I enjoyed every minute. Max Beesley was amazing as Tom and Samantha Morton did a wonderful job of portraying Sophie. There is nothing more to say other than, it was one of A&E's finest.

Excellent!! Flawless adaptation of the book!
I saw Tom Jones when it aired on A&E, and loved it so much that I had to read the book. I must commend BBC for the superb work they did interpreting the book into the movie. The movie follows the book exactly, which pleases me to no end, considering the way that some movies have massacred the story they came from. This is a very funny and enjoyable movie.

Outrageous!
Here's a story filled with dastardly plotting and prevarication, true love and tawdry sex, wild drunkenness, chases, disguises, near-misses, and utterly improbable (but hilarious) meetings. Wonderful acting by British stage and film stars--fans of BBC literary adaptations will recognize many favorites--bring this wild, picaresque tale to life with charm and boundless verve. Perhaps best of all is the screenplay, which manages to make sense of everything in Fielding's convoluted tale while also making the most of 18th-century English, when the language was at its graceful, urbane peak.

Just try to watch this one with a straight face!

I Love You Tom!!
Tom Jones is one my favorite movies of all time. It is so hard to watch this movie and not be charmed by Mr. Jones and his crazy antics. In this movie you have your two central characters, that rapscallion orphan Tom Jones and his fair innocent(though sometimes a bit temperamental)Sophie. Surrounding this epic love story are a wide variety of vivid and eccentric characters. This story has one of the best endings ever, which I won't reveal to you though I am sorely tempted to do so. If you are a rommantic at heart or just love a good laugh and lot of adventure, you must see this movie.

Henry Fielding's immortality
"It is a pity he was not immortal, he was so formed for happiness." -- Mary Wortley Montagu on the death of her cousin, Henry Fielding.

This dramatization of this most wonderful book is nearly perfect. I say nearly perfect because that are one or two little problems with the sound (no, Honour doesn't mean she wouldn't say a word if Sophia were to go to bed with Mr. BLIFIL instead of Mr. Jones, nor does Miss Western mean to say, "Brother, if you would only leave your NIECE to my care...") but never mind that. It doesn't matter because the director, Metin Huseyin, has his fingers on the pulse of 18th century England. It's not a "bawdy romp." It was really like this. Straight, nonintoxicated Englishmen hugged and kissed each other in public (a show of feeling was considered a mark of a gentleman). People talked more openly about sex than they did for another 175 years, the fact that women liked it too, and the fact that sex is, every once in a while, a motive for human behaviour. Women talked back and demanded respect. Hypocrisy was everywhere (and just like now, you could sometimes say so). About 140 crimes carried the death sentence. Money and property sometimes mattered more than people. Young people sometimes had to marry the person they were told to marry whether they hated them or not, and being kind, generous and amiable could get you in worse trouble than being greedy, grabby and nasty. Fielding wrote it all down and Huseyin delivers it wonderfully well here.

Tony Richardson's Tom Jones was splendid, to be sure, and is full of brilliant acting, but in many ways it was, to quote a friend of mine, rather like, "Austen Powers does the 18th Century." This is Tom Jones as Fielding conceived him. A pretty, sweet fellow, probably based on Fielding's youthful self, who makes a few very human mistakes and, with the help of his enemies, nearly gets himself hanged.

The casting in this production is marvellous and the director has, probably through his obvious great love for this story, allowed each actor to be infused with a faithful sense of character. Fantastic as Joyce Grenfell was, to the heavily Freudianized audiences of 1964, a character like Lady Bellaston could only be portrayed as a clinging nyphomaniac. Lindsay Duncan, on the other hand, is perfect as the mature, sexy, selfish, independently wealthy female who does exactly as she likes, a type of woman not unknown today and not unknown in the 18th century, either. (It was the Victorians and people in the first three quarters of the 20th century who claimed women like this were aberrations.) Peter Capaldi is great as the horribly funny Lord Fellamar. Partridge is rumpled, wronged and tender-hearted. The household parasites ARE odious, Brian Blessed IS Squire Western (complete with dog slobber and misguided parenting), Samantha Morton is perfect as Sophia, who in turn was based on Fielding's beloved wife, Charlotte; lovely, hot-tempered, brave and honest. As is true of all the casting, her long-suffering, imperfect maid and friend, Honour, is great. The child actors well match their grownup counterparts. Beesley is a good Tom and also has a nice bottom. John Sessions, who plays Fielding himself, our wry narrator, is a delight.

This production is much closer to the original, including the dialogue, already in place by Fielding, who wrote dialogue for his novels like the dramatist that he was; so in a way it was already a screenplay. Some of the longer narrative passages had to be pared out, of course, but why both directors (Richardson and Huseyin) leave out the fact that Squire Allworthy sends his precious but disgraced Tom off, well provided for, with 500 pounds in his pocket, I don't know, but I'm sure they had their reasons. The sets may not be brilliant, but the costumes, make-up, acting and directing are. This is a wonderful production in the old BBC tradition. Get it and love it, because they aren't making them anymore. And if you think we won't suffer for this loss, then listen (as if you could avoid it) to the deafening whine that passes for so much of modern dramatic art. We need Henry Fielding as much now as they did then. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Leo (Kevin McKidd) is an endearing pup of a blue-eyed lad lookingfor old-fashioned romance with a happily ever after. Convinced to join afriend's drum-thumping New Men's Group ("Let these strong loving menheal you!" begs leader Simon Callow, who all but steals the film as a manin touch with his inner guru), Leo confesses an attraction to anothermember of the circle in the spirit of sharing. He's the only gay man in the group but his confession starts a cascade of sexual reassessment, allencouraged by Callow's hilarious new age Iron John. Meanwhile Leo's gadflyof a roommate is having sex in other people's bedrooms all over town withhis new real estate agent lover (a sly, haughtily confident Hugo Weaving)and Leo reconnects with his childhood girlfriend Sally (Jennifer Ehle), who brightens the film with her sunny smile and wounded yet spiritedtenderness. Rose Troche, whose guerrilla American indie Go Fishtransformed a lesbian love story into a classic romantic comedy, herestraddles screwball farce and sophisticated sitcom with a clumsy style that skews more toward the latter, but she invests it with genuine affection. As the funny but flippant comedy winds up to almost painfully trite pairingsbetween the ricocheting couples-to-be, Troche's loving direction allowseveryone their dignity and their charm, even through the most contrived and kooky complications. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (28)

Wonderfully comical
I just spent a hilarious three hours (well, the film is only 105 minutes, but I kept hitting the reverse button on the remote) watching Bedrooms & Hallways. This film is clever and funny.

Leo and Darren, both gay, search for romance in their own individual ways. Leo is attracted to someone whom he thinks is straight. Darren just has one hell of a good time, often. And life falls apart from there.

The film begins with a surprise party for Leo, at which we meet all the principal characters of the film. Then by means of one long flashback we enjoy what led up to the current state of affairs (of which there are many). The ending is hair-brained and implausible but many of these films usually end absurdly. So, not an issue.

What makes this film so lovably wonderful are the characters. As for Leo, take him or leave him. He is one of those tiresome individuals who obsesses his way out of what could have been a meaningful relationship by insisting on 100% commitment. Oh, yawn. We've seen it a million times, so ignore him. Tom Hollander plays Darren to delicious excess. You may remember him from the "Absolutely Fabulous" episodes, "The Last Shout," in which he almost marries Saffron. Hugo Weaving (Priscilla: Queen of the Desert) plays Jeremy, Darren's love interest. Jeremy is a real estate agent, which gives him access to empty houses in which he and Darren meet to fulfill some eccentric fantasies. But Jeremy has to have the right decor. These two are the joy of this film. Simon Callow, as Keith, oversees a New Age men's therapy group that is hysterical. And James Purefoy is gorgeous as Brendan.

Finally, a gay film in which there is lots of kissing! And it's the good old fashioned open mouth, "I think you're so hot!" variety. The DVD lacks features, but it has a short and enlightening interview with the director, Rose Troche. One point - ignore the cover. It shows Weaving looking lasciviously at Purefoy. Those two have nothing to do with each other in the film. They never even meet. Just another example of marketing ineptitude. But the disk inside is wonderful! Now go buy it, Honey.

Fluffy but funny
Charming little film about a gay man and the crazy world that surrounds him, the film is delightful but doesn't stand too far above the many charming and delightful gay-themed British films that we've seen in the last little while (Get Real, Like It Is), but is probably most notable for being the one that really makes a concerted effort to stretch people's guidelines of what constitutes sexual orientation: the main character finds himself attracted to a straight man in his all-male therapy group, and the straight man actually goes out with him and ends becoming quite enamored in their relationship. The latter guy's girlfriend turns out to be our hero's ex-girlfriend from college, and they in turn find a possible reignition of their young puppy love. While not anything worth writing home about, the film is bright and lively and features a great Jane Austen-themed sadism dream sequence, complete with one of the film's stars Harriet Walker, who you might remember as the evil Fanny in Sense and Sensibility. Her scenes with Simon Callow are among the film's best ("I love being a woman," she says, "Not because of you but because of me.")

Amazing, funny, open minded...
A very original and satiric comedy ! A great pleasure: very nice story, good study of human behaviours, very well played by many talented actors and actress, never coarse and first and foremost it makes us learn being more tolerant and open minded towards other people. It doesn't matter if people are gay or hetero or anything else ; there only one thing interesting : they are all simply only human with qualities and fairlties.
A very good time in forecast...

Unexpected Twists and strange effections
Bedrooms and Hallways is an enjoyable and at times witty film that follows the lead ( Leo ) on his quest to find romance, love or a husband of sorts. It has the feel of a sit-com with undertones that hit on issues most of us can understand. It's more like light entertainment with a few fairly heavy moments. The production quality is good and the acting was right on. As a note, the actor that plays a kinky real estate salesman is the same actor that plays Mr. Smith in the Matrix movies and it was fun to see him in the truely twisted roll as a Gay sex monger with strange kinks. He hates cheep house wares. Maybe you have to see it to understand. The movie was good and worth picking up and adding to your collection. Its suggestive but tastefully done and would be OK for mixed crowds.

Cliched, but still entertaining due to unexpected situations
First fifteen minutes: the sledgehammer was out and the condescension began. Film was saying "all you people out there who have stereotypical notions about gay people...you're WRONG!".

Next half an hour: sledgehammer goes away, but a dreadfully rehashed plotline comes out. Gay man falls for straight guy who -- shut my mouth! -- may be interested in our hero after all. Agenda is out on the table. Can a moratorium be declared on this plotline?

Next 15 minutes: Straight girl (aka "former girlfriend) appears and wants our gay hero. Because straight girls are ALWAYS in love with their gay male friends, didn't you know.

Last half hour: This is where the story took a turn I had not seen before. People who believe a person is either gay or straight may be dissatisfied with the outcome, but I found it to be very true to life (including, but not limited to, mine). Love and friendship can be confusing enough as they are; throw sex into the mix and one inevitably starts questioning one's own assumptions.

Plot machinations aside, the perfomers are genial and it is nice to see films about modern Britain. There are some truly funny moments and everyone feels like a friend. I wound up enjoying this film a lot. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

This movie shouldn't have been made...
or at least given the same title as the classic by John Dahl. The first movie was great; at one point it was my favorite movie of all time! But Joan Severance tried to make a, I guess, serious movie and boy was that a bad idea. I knew that when seeing this movie that I wasn't getting the origional, but I at least expected to see Joan Severance in a sex fest. Not even that! I was real excited to see Joan Severance get it on again because I hadn't seen her in a while. So I guess I have to wait some more. This is off the topic, but Joan Severance's best role was in a soft core porn called Almost Pregnant. It was totally funny and totally hot. Too bad Amazon doesn't have it.

More wooden than a lumberyard
Last Seduction/Last Seduction II wins the title of 'Greatest Original/Worst Sequel' hands down. Severence manages to at least look like Bridgett/ Wendy, but thats about a far as it goes. The fact that no one from the original movie participates in the sequel begs the question; Could I decide to make a movie entitled 'Godfater part IV' without the consent of Francis Ford Coppola? It looks like that is what happened here. The only borderline clever part of the whole movie is when one character has a hotel televison on, the original movie is seen on the screen. Be warned, this movie B-L-O-W-S.

Liked it better than the first one
First off don't rent or buy this if you are expecting to see Joan severance in the buff. No Nudity in this one. Don't fret this is a pretty good story, and Joan makes a much more convincing b@#ch than Linda Fiorentino. ... Read more