Sharp performance from Reese

It is never certain in William Makepeace Thackeray's long novel whether Becky Sharp, the penniless orphan who propels herself into the world of the 19th-century aristocracy, is a scheming minx or someone to be admired for her persistence and pluck. But given that Thackeray described his book as a "novel with no hero", we must assume the former.

In Mira Nair's film, Reese Witherspoon settles for the latter. She is almost an early feminist, fighting audaciously against the innate snobbery of the Establishment. But perhaps this is the only way to deal with Sharp today.

Witherspoon makes the most of her opportunity, just as she did as the scheming student in Election. She is the hub by which Nair's film stands or falls, despite the other experienced, starry performances surrounding her.

Since these are from luminaries Jim Broadbent and Bob Hoskins, as her father figures, Eileen Atkins and Gabriel Byrne as her benefactors, not forgetting James Purefoy as her husband and Rhys Ifans as the hopeless Major Dobbin, this is a considerable achievement. So is the way Nair mounts her costumed period piece, adding some Indian spice on the way - only some of it taken from the novel.

What the film lacks is much of the author's sharp and ironic satire, and the sense that Becky makes herself so adept at beating the class system at its own hypocritical games that she morally becomes a member of the club herself. There is also a certain literalness about Julian Fellowes' adaptation that makes the film seem longer and heavier than it need be.

***

Vanity Fair
Cert: PG