This review was a challenge from Brian to Benn.

Hopefully, I won’t fall asleep just writing this review.

“Vanity Fair” is about Becky Sharp, for the most part, as she grows up in poverty and she climbs her way--I should say MOUNTAINEERS her way—up the social ladder of London with her friend Amelia.

This picture has so many characters and character struggles to follow, I started to wonder whose story we were supposed to focus on. One character, George, is introduced as a complete a**hole, but later killed in war and somehow I think director Mira Nair (Hysterical Blindness) wanted us to feel sorry for him. I couldn’t understand why.

The first hour of the picture is pretty good. It remains focused on Becky’s social goals, as hallow as they may be, but at some point, other subplots are started and not finished, leaving me wondering what the movie was about, REALLY.

Most of the material in “Vanity Fair” focuses on class issues during England’s early 1800’s, as well as the suffrage of English women. Again, at some point, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the later half of the picture. Suddenly, the movie becomes a story about a woman who screws up her life and the lives of others without really knowing it.

Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde), as Becky, did absolutely fantastic. She completely walked into this stuffy shirt English picture and blended in perfectly. She also has a handful of intense moments in Act Three. It was nice to see her do something different for her, like this.

Other great performances came from Rhys Ifans (Knotting Hill) and Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (Iris) as the father of the guy that got killed in battle.

This is also the first movie where Gabriel Byrne (Usual Suspects) walks into the picture late in the second act and completely drags the film down. I think he was supposed to be a pivotal character, but somehow he not only added nothing to the picture, he brought the film down. His scenes were tough to get through. I doubt he had a clue where he was coming from.

The picture was absolutely gorgeous in costume and set design, which I credit to production designer Maria Djurkovic.

For the most part, this is a pretentiously slow picture about uptight British people. Not exactly a story in need of being told.

I’d skip this rental if I were you, unless you are battling spats of insomnia. This is a solid cure. To give you an idea of how tiring this picture is, it was based on a novel by an author named William Makepeace Thackery. Just his name makes me drowsy.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?