Click on Oscar and Lucinda and visit Fox Searchlight for a preview
of the film and behind the scenes info.
Read Peter Carey's Booker prize winning novel
Amazon price ten dollars and forty cents
Listen to Ralph Fiennes, star of the film read Peter Carey's novel.
Amazon price fourteen dollars and forty cents. Nearly ten dollars
less than retail!
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Return to The Classics Decomposed
"Oscar and Lucinda" is as different from any other romance as it's
two protagonists are from the society in which they live.
Taking place during the Victorian era, a time demanding complete
and unquestioning conformity, Oscar and Lucinda find themselves
square pegs being asked to fit into round holes.
Oscar Hopkins, raised by a strict religious father, leaves home
to enter the world of the Anglican church because of the toss
of a stone.
Lucinda Leplastrier finding herself displaced, but rich, is determined
to make her own way in the world. She buys a glassworks in New South Wales.
It is on the ship Leviathan, on which Oscar is travelling to New
South Wales as a missionary, a decision he has made on the toss
of a coin and Lucinda is travelling home after a trip for machinary
for her glassworks, that the two meet and learn each others most
guarded secret.
The two are gamblers. Oscar, introduced to betting on horses by a
friend at Oxford and Lucinda introduced to cards by her friends
in New South Wales.
The two will eventually gamble on building and having Oscar deliver
a glass church to an outback town where an old friend of Lucinda's,
the Reverend Hassett has been banished.
It is a gamble that is born out of misunderstanding and missed
communication. You see, Oscar loves Lucinda and Lucinda loves Oscar.
But neither reveal their feelings to the other leading Oscar to attempt
the delivery of the church to prove himself to Lucinda.
Ralph Fiennes, all elbows, red hair and ill fitting clothes, is a
warm, witty, awkward and utterly disarming Oscar. He will win your heart
and make you understand why he has won Lucinda's love.
Cate Blanchett's Lucinda is a quirky, independent woman who is a step
ahead of the times in which she lives.
Gillian Srmstrong has directed a fine, if unusual love story which
most people will probably see on cable or video since it hasn't been widely
distributed.
Oscar and Lucinda earns a rating of four out of
five Prince Rupert drops.
Oh, a Prince Rupert drop is a piece of glass that can only break if...Well
for that answer you must see the film.
