When I heard Brideshead Revisited was being filmed again, I was slightly in shock. And then in fear. And then in state of reserved anticipation. When the film was released and I found out it was playing down the street at the Downer Theater, I swore I would reread Waugh's classic,  then re-watch the 11 hour long 1981 miniseries, and THEN see this new film.
My expectations for the film weren't exactly high. The oh-so-soapy  trailer planted the first seed of doubt in my mind. I mean, when the near opening line of the trailer is, "What form do your pleasures take?" which is  followed by the image of Julia sucking on an apple...strawberries and champagne under the trees is not the first thing that pops into your head. The second seed of doubt took root when I read reports that said that Sebastian Flyte had, once and for all, been yanked out of the closet. While I am all for increased gay visibility and interpreting the "gay code" that existed in Brideshead Revisited and other novels of the period , I dreaded that the increased focus on Sebastian's sexuality would come at the sacrifice the main theme of the novel, the precarious balance of family between their suffocating Roman Catholicism and the modern world.
Well, due to the constant replaying of the trailer on every single TV channel, my curiosity got the better of me and my carefully planned schedule of book, miniseries, movie, was thrown out the window.  So, here are my thoughts on the new film after *gasp!* no recent reread of the novel and *double gasp!* only rewatching the first two parts (or four hours) of the miniseries.