Far from the Madding Crowd

Bathsheba Everdene inherits a farm and decides to run it herself. Three men want her: the shepherd Gabriel Oak, the wealthy neighbour Boldwood and Sergeant Troy. The choice she makes changes all three lives. Thomas Vinterberg directed, from Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel. It is the fourth film version. David Nicholls wrote the screenplay, with development starting in 2008. Carey Mulligan plays Bathsheba and Matthias Schoenaerts plays Gabriel. Mulligan reportedly picked Schoenaerts herself after seeing him in Rust and Bone. Principal photography began in September 2013 in Dorset, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Vinterberg added material to sharpen the tension, including an intimate scene between Troy and Bathsheba that the British crew jokingly called the Danish handshake. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 84 percent and Metacritic at 71. Peter Travers in Rolling Stone wrote that Mulligan can hold a close-up like nobody's business. On a 12 million pound budget it grossed 30.2 million dollars worldwide, 12.2 million domestically and 17.9 million abroad. Who it is for: viewers who like period novels and Hardy adaptations. Who it is not for: anyone attached to Schlesinger's 1967 version. This one is shorter, faster and drops many of the novel's side strands.