The Telegraph
Lily James and Dominic West are proof off-screen chemistry always ruins the on-screen action
Any soul watching the BBC’s new rendering of The Pursuit of Love for a frisson of sexual desire between Dominic West, who plays Uncle Matthew, and Lily James, his on-screen daughter Linda (they were rumoured to have had a brief affair until the tabloids consumed them) should firstly be ashamed of themselves, and, secondly, will be otherwise disappointed. I suspect that at heart Uncle Matthew has shell shock from the war – what would a younger Anthony Hopkins do with the part? – but West plays him for laughs because Nancy Mitford wrote him that way, and it is easier work. In his scenes with Lily James, who is full of sensibility and longing, he merely smirks, much as he did during the gruesome post-exposure photocall with his wife. Where is his bass note? West is a likeable actor – he is all shoulders and grins – but he is not a great one. If there was any emotional dribble from his personal conflicts, it made his performance worse. Uncle Matthew is a raging and uxorious man; West plays him as pleased with himself, while being a depressive, and it does not make sense. There are two performances in The Pursuit of Love that shine with sexual repression. One is Emily Mortimer as Linda’s aunt and warning from history, the Bolter, who today would be called a sex and love addict. Mortimer directed The Pursuit of Love, and is both responsible for its female gaze, and one of the best things in it. You can’t hate the Bolter – she lives in an ever-receding dreamland – and in Mortimer’s hands she is fragile, heartbreaking and very funny. The other is the superb Andrew Scott as the presumably gay Lord Merlin, the neighbour who tries to educate and protect Linda from herself. He is brittle and tender; grey and colourful; stone and water. Since we should assume that Mortimer and Scott weren’t chewing each other up offscreen, the idea that an affair will enhance a performance is as dead as Uncle Matthew’s unfortunate pheasants.
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