I respect Barbara Cartland and her work for the fact that her love novels (about 800 of them were written) are not so popular now plotless pornography, as if specially written for dissatisfied housewives and virgin schoolgirls with an overabundance of hormones. However, Cartland's novels also have a number of significant drawbacks. First of all, this concerns their schematics: if you read one, you actually read all the others, because in each book a young naive girl is most often of noble origin, but who is in distress becomes engaged to some young secular lion and eventually becomes his wife. Before this, of course, intrigue and conflicts may arise, but the plot can be predicted by a brief description, and this very spoils the impression of reading.
Another drawback is the love line between the main characters. Judge for yourself, can a selfish and cynical handsome man, who has long been fed up with all the pleasures of secular life and has more than ten mistresses, having met the “young bright and pure creature”, which is his future wife, love her alone and become a real “prince” ready to die for his beloved? Answer: No, it is impossible and unreal, it is more like a more adult version of the fairy tale for naive young ladies, in life this is unlikely to happen.
What about the actors in this film-screening previously described by me? It was interesting to see the young Helena Bonham-Carter, who I always considered a talented, but ugly outwardly actress, but as it turned out, she was always an inconspicuous round-face simpleton. Perhaps that is why later she will play mostly half-crazy villains, this image suits her much more than a young lady.
Not much can be said about the other actors, except that the main villains of the film seem too unnatural, almost operetically. And, despite the title, “A hair from death” does not make you very worried about the fate of the couple in love, since the plot, as was said, is obvious in advance.
In total, this is the most common film adaptation of a female novel, where there is little plausibility and a lot of romance. Girls who love such fairy tales will certainly like this film, but if you want real emotions, watch a more worthwhile movie.
6 out of 10