Under the Greenwood Tree

Are you looking for a heart-warming film for a cold and dark winter evening? I can but recommend the BBC’s 2005 adaptation of Under the Greenwood Tree made of Thomas Hardy’s novel of the same title. The cast features Keeley Hawes as Fancy Day and James Murray as Dick Dewey. It tells the story of Fancy Day, the new schoolmistress in Mellstock, hired by the town parson. Her beauty and charm bewitch three very different men, all of whom are attempting to win her hand in marriage. But whom will she choose in the end: the rich but gruff farmer, the educated but pretentious vicar or the dashing but socially inferior carrier?

What I found absolutely amazing about the film was the chemistry between the two main characters; it simply made the screen sizzle. Since the film Out of Africa came out, we know that washing a woman’s hair can be insanely sexy. Now, this film proves that washing hands in the same basin can also be an extremely sensual experience.

Although the screenplay slightly changed some elements of the novel (e.g. in the film, Fancy does not marry with "a secret she would never tell"), it is a delightful and straightforward romantic tale that – for a change – does not reflect Hardy’s famous pessimism and melancholy. I daresay that it is the most enjoyable romantic drama since BBC’s highly acclaimed Pride and Prejudice.