Vanity Fair

Mira Nair’s adaptation of Thackeray is not nearly nasty enough, but does offer satisfactions of the Masterpiece Theater ilk -- settings, costumes, and a brilliant array of British character actors. This is a gallop through a great baggy monster of a novel, with a stampede of characters rushing by -- granted -- but it’s the tone that’s the real problem. Reese Witherspoon has proved she can be wicked enough (vide Tracy Flick in Election), but a gee-whiz American innocence lingers here around a performance that should be utterly knowing and scheming, all about class and climbing. What ought to be scathing, even chilling, comes across as plucky. A Becky Sharp who doesn’t make you cringe is hardly a Becky Sharp at all. This ain’t Jane Austen, you know. (2004, dvd, n.) *6* (MC-53, RT-48.)