Pulling Its Punches

CGI-enhanced literary adaptation looks sharp but lacks heart.

- Diana Wichtel

‘All is vanity, nothing is fair.” William Makepeace Thack-eray pretty much had life nailed back in 1848. His sly, satiric masterpiece, Vanity Fair, evokes a world of “humbug, falseness and pretention” beset by all manner of knaves, blackguards and quacks. Gad! The great novelist might have been following Trump’s Twitter feed. The book hardly needs updating but that’s what happens to the classics so hey, Amazon, knock yourself out.

This adaptation has a science fiction-y vibe, thanks to slightly unnerving computer-generated vistas of 19th-century London. You half expect to see the Tardis touch down in the Vauxhall pleasure gardens or an army of Daleks roll through Russell Square. Even the habitués of social media expect a break from high-tech on a costume drama. “Oh hello CGI London, you look very clean,” went one tweet. “The way this is going (contemporary music, overlit, CGI), I wouldn’t be surprised to see Becky texting someone soon,” moaned another.