Carrington (1995)

Directed by Christopher Hampton. Starring Emma Thompson, Jonathan Pryce, Steven Waddington, Rufus Sewell, Samuel West, Penelope Wilton, Peter Blythe. [R]

Cloistered and partially excessive story of painter Dora Carrington (Thompson) and her unorthodox marriage to homosexual writer Lytton Strachey (Pryce); works fine as a character study and as a vessel for two first-rate performances, but the story itself is muddled and repetitive. The relationship between Carrington and Strachey is fascinating—their companionship is both intellectually and sexually awakening, but the particulars of their affair feel frustrated, even delusional. Since they were members of the storied Bloomsbury Group, bed-hopping among proto-bohemians is a given, but the screenplay (by Hampton) is more revelatory of the principals as individuals than as a pair, which is fitting since so much of the material was taken from the subjects’ letters and journals, where external insight tends to be scant and presumptive. Marks playwright/screenwriter Hampton’s feature directing debut.

66/100