The Way We Live Now captures the turmoil as the old order is swept aside by the brash new forces of business and finance. Based on the novel by Anthony Trollope, this satire of Victorian society contains the trials and tribulations of young love, the pettiness of the upper class life, the raw energy and excitement of the most powerful city the world had ever seen, and the greed and corruption that lay just below its glittering surface.
First screened on BBC in 2001, The Way We Live Now will surprise those who know Anthony Trollope through the subtleties of his Barsetshire novels. This story of ambition centers around Augustus Melmotte, an Austrian Jewish financier who takes the London money markets and social scene by storm in his efforts to become an “English country gentleman.” His rise and fall is followed with remorseless logic by Trollope, and David Yates’s direction keeps this in focus against a wealth of subplots and character interaction.
The cast is a strong one, with David Suchet’s Melmotte gripping in his recklessness, climaxing in the theatrical magnificence of his departure in disgrace from the House of Commons. Shirley Henderson is magnetic as his put-upon daughter Marie, courted by the cream-of-society bachelors for her dowry rather than her person. Cheryl Campbell gives a good account of the feckless Lady Carbury, writing vacuous novels to support her family, with Matthew MacFadyen relishing the part of her rakish son, Felix. Paloma Baeza is sympathetic as her daughter, Hetta, whose on-off relationship with entrepreneur Paul Montague, ably taken by Cillian Murphy, provides the main love interest. Douglas Hodge impresses as the loyal and sincere but insipid Roger Carbury.
In 1872 novelist Anthony Trollope returned to England from abroad and was appalled by the greed loose in the land. His scolding rebuke was his longest and arguably best novel, The Way We Live Now, now adapted by celebrated screenwriter Andrew Davies. This being Trollope, the story is peppered with a galaxy of other cads, aristocrats, suitors, bigwigs, blowhards and ne’er-do-wells. The series consists of four generous episodes, each lasting 75 minutes.
Shown on PBS Masterpiece Theatre.
Starring David Suchet, Matthew Macfadyen and Cillian Murphy.
Included in the BBC Classic Drama Collection as DVDs 30, 31.