I was really looking forward to this adaptation, particularly as I really loved Peter Weir's movie. I was really disappointed, for many of the same reasons mentioned in other reviews. I found it muddled with the character backstories injected at random points. The 'Gus van Sant' style sequences were just distracting. As a result the atmosphere didn't build through the episodes. Much too much time was spent focusing the school, to the point where you kind of forgot about the main plot. The orginal book is extremely well written and as a period piece a much simpler screenplay and style of direction would have made this a much better production.

Hmm. Though it has some performances to appreciate and some beautiful scenery, it's much easier to admire this mini-series version of the Australian novel than it is to love it. Natalie Dormer is the real reason for watching, and her performance as Mrs. Appleyard - despite regularly reminding me of Gary Oldman in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" - is multifaceted and excellent. It's just a shame that it exists in a series that tries to cling so tightly to the mysterious elements of Peter Weirs film, that over and over again it just halts to show you a 30 second montage of clouds sped up or dust blowing on the wind. I don't really mind added elements to pad the story or the ambiguous nature of the ending, but those are mixed in with scenes of random dream sequences (that I assume are metaphorical, but if so, are never explained) and missing scenes from the middle of the plot, where the story is implied though not specifically detailed. The most damning feature though is that despite only being six hours long, it's lacking in enough story to fill that runtime, so scenes are show multiple times with an incremental increase each time but no big reveal at the end of them. At half the length it would be twice as good, but as it is there's not much to recommend committing to that run time.

I found Natalie Dormers acting quite compelling, but she couldn't rescue the increasingly worsening affair. I barely made it through the second episode. Perhaps with less jittering, tilting, swaying, blurriness and the use of a steady cam I could actually be persuaded to keep watching. Or maybe without some of the over-the-top acting, weird senseless psychadelic scenes, annoyingly modern music, the overall attempt to add ill-suited swag and with an actual story, well, then perhaps.. But alas, this was not for me. Have high hopes for the movie, thanks for the advice.

I wanted to love this because I love Natalie Doormer. But I was so bored! I stopped after the second episode. Disappointed!