Main Cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Clive Owen, Ray Stevenson, Steven Mackintosh, Claire Skinner
Release Year: 1994
Country: UK
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Unlike the barren and forbidding moors elsewhere in England, Return of the Native's Egdon Heath attires itself in vibrant wildflowers, mossy hillsides, winding streams, arching footbridges, and undulant meadows. An enchantress would be at home in this place, but not Eustacia Vye, portrayed by Zeta-Jones. Though coveted by every man in Egdon Heath -- and every boy old enough to stare -- the beautiful Eustacia longs for the smoking chimneys and broad stone buildings of Paris. When a native of Egdon Heath, Clym Yeobright Ray Stevenson, returns from his job in Paris as a jeweler, Vye stuns him with her beauty and marries him in hopes of persuading him to take her to Paris. But, alas, Clym is a clod at heart. He vows to remain in Egdon Heath to teach and edify. After his eyesight deteriorates, Eustacia turns her attentions to rakish Damon Wildeve Clive Owen, and the plot begins to churn and curdle. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Review
The producers of this 1994 adaptation of The Return of the Native adorn their mise-en-scène with two astonishing beauties: Egdon Heath and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Zeta-Jones is a marvel as Eustacia. Her raven hair, her darting eyes, her manipulative smile, and the ambiguity of her pledges of love all spellbind the viewer. All of the acting in this drama, based on a Thomas Hardy novel written in 1888 but set in 1842, is strong. In particular, Joan Plowright as Clym's mother knows how to nag, annoy, and -- while climbing a hill -- die. Stevenson is a perfect Clym: earnest, thoughtful, warm. And Owen is wonderfully roguish as the bewhiskered Wildeve. The cinematography and costumes are first-class. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Ray Stevenson - Clym Yeobright; Steven Mackintosh - Diggory Venn; Claire Skinner - Thomasin; Paul Rogers - Captain Vye; Joan Plowright - Mrs. Yeobright; John Breslin - Vicar; Daniel Newman - Mummer; Britta Smith - Olly Dowden; Celia Imrie - Susan Nunsuch; Peter Wight - Timothy; John Boswall - Granfer Cande
Credit
Derek Hyde - Costume Designer, Jack Gold - Director, Jim Oliver - Editor, Carl Davis - Composer (Music Score), Peter Mullins - Production Designer, Alan Hume - Cinematographer, Nick Gillott - Producer, Richard Welsh - Producer, Robert W. Lenski - Screenwriter, Thomas Hardy - Book Author
