Wives and Daughters Movie Review 2001

Charming adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 1864 chronicle of family ties, romance, and scandal set in an 1820s English country town. Our heroine is modest Molly Gibson (Waddell), whose widower doctor father (Paterson) marries ambitious Hyacinth (Annis), who has a beautiful daughter, Cynthia (Hawes), who's Molly's age. Then there's the local gentry, Squire Hamley (Gambon), and his two sons, the poetic Osborne (Hollander) and the scientific Roger (Howell). Molly becomes everyone's confidante, but also has her own secrets.

Distribution

The Video Collection, PO Box 2284, South Burlington, VT 05407-2284

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 300 minutes.
Originally from British.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Romantic Drama, Family Ties, Great Britain, Period Piece: 19th Century

Screenplay

Andrew Davies

Cast

Justine Waddell, Keeley Hawes, Francesca Annis, Bill Paterson, Michael Gambon, Penelope Wilton, Tom Hollander, Anthony Howell, Ian Carmichael, Iain Glen, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Tonia Chauvet, Shaughan Seymour, Barbara Flynn, Deborah Findlay

Director

Nicholas Renton