I Capture The Castle - Novel and Movie

Cassandra is one of fiction's most enchanting characters. She combines innocence with a quick wit, sometimes coming over as a little pretentious, but never dull. She is an aspiring novelist with a wonderful eye for detail, and reading the novel really does feel like peeking over her shoulder as she sits speed-writing in her journal in the most unlikely places. She spins enchanting tales that lift the plot from poverty and desperation and turn everything she sees to magic. Whether it is ruined stones, the first signs of Spring, or a trip to London, Cassandra can make anything she turns her attention to come to vivid life. But, like Jane Austen's Emma, she is so caught up in the lives of those around her that her own emotions take her by surprise.

Rose Mortmain, at almost 21, is the beauty in the family. She is the one who seems to most miss their dead mother, and the one who suffers most at being isolated in a castle without the company of other young people or even the consolation of fine clothes and possessions. Her quick emotions and longing to experience life make the seclusion of her existence unbearable. This leads her to dramatic acts and wild gestures, such as threatening to sell her soul to the Devil in exchange for a little excitement.

The girls' father, James Mortmain, once had a great success with a novel. However, after year upon year of writers' block, his family begin to despair of him ever doing more than shutting himself away in the tower with detective novels. The rest of the family tiptoe around his moods in their wavering belief in his genius.

Topaz is the name of the beautiful 29 year old step-mother who used to be an artists' model and is unashamedly eccentric. She plays the lute, is a hopeless if well-meaning substitute mother to the girls, and lends an air of drama to their lives.

Thomas is the 15 year old brother - a bright but otherwise ordinary boy who stays good-humored in the face of adversity, apart from occasional quarrels with his sisters.

Simon and Neil Cotton are the brothers, brought up separately in different parts of the USA and only recently reunited, who come to England to claim Simon's inheritance. Here they become captivated by the Mortmain family - particularly Rose - in a turn of events that threaten to tear the two families apart.

Stephen Colly is a young man who has become absorbed into the Mortmain family after his own mother's death. Almost invisible to those he does so much to help, this working class boy who lives with them as a servant is the true gentleman of the novel. Both handsome and kind, he is the only member of the household with any common sense. He worships Cassandra, but she finds she cannot give her love where it is most deserved...

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A movie of a book is sometimes a disappointment. Not this one. The film captures all the charm and enchantment of the original novel with a perfectly chosen cast combined with beautiful cinematography.

The talented young British actress Romola Garai is a fresh-faced Cassandra, and is joined by Australian Rose Byrne who shares a first-name with her vivacious and flirtatious character.

Bill Nighy takes the role of the wild eyed, unpredictable James Mortmain. His flamboyant wife is played by Tara Fitzgerald, who while not matching the physical description of Topaz, doesn't fail to bring her other characteristics to life in dramatic detail.

The Cotton brothers are portrayed by Henry Thomas and Marc Blucas, with Henry Cavill as the handsome but out-of-luck Stephen Colley.

Although set in rural Suffolk, filming took place on the Isle of Man.

I Capture The Castle
[DVD]
[2003]