Customer Reviews

Coming Through [VHS]

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Indeed, COMING THROUGH is Kenneth Branagh's least interesting film. This semi-period film appears to center around D.H. Lawrence, however, it does not completely involve the life of D.H. Lawrence. The packaging of this DVD and film is quite deceiving.

For the most part, the plotline involves a female scholar who takes a weekend trip to do research about Lawrence, and happens to encounter a young man in the library in which she is doing her research who is an avid Lawrence reader. Their storyline suddenly spills over to flashback scenes of Lawrence's life, and this is where the film lacks cohesion. The romantic liaison/affair between Lawrence and the married Frieda Von Richthofen, which is depicted on the cover of the DVD, is interesting and intriguing, but it is fragmented and poorly displayed in the film. Also, the intertwining subplot between the young man and the female scholar attempts to show a romance between the two, which further creates a mess of a film.

COMING THROUGH did not come through. The English landscape is amazing as well as Branagh's acting. However, the film looks like a BBC film or a made for television production, which may have been shown during the holidays. This film may be good for die hard Branagh fans, but otherwise, skip it.

There are 2 reasons to see this movie (and only 2). Really beautiful scenery, and wonderful acting by Kenneth Branagh. Other than these, I found the story underdeveloped, and the movie ended just as it was beginning to get interesting. We see some flashbacks of DH Lawrence's life. However, whereas the cover of the movie suggests that the focus would be on the relationship between DH Lawrence and a married woman, this relationship is not the focus of the movie. In fact, this is a movie that looks at DH Lawrence, without focusing. Therefore, one is surprised when the movie ends, but not sorry.

At first, I was impressed with the film because Kenneth Branagh does a very good Lawrence, and Helen Mirren is almost unrecognizable so immersed is she in Frieda. I don't mind the frame as a convention. Byatt's Possession does it reasonably well. But the whole film is so short and it doesn't have room for what is a rather meaningless frame. Do fanatics hang out in places like the Nottingham University Library to pick up female Lawrence scholars? Who cares. Since Netflix marks it as a 2-part DVD, I actually thought there was more. But there isn't, and good luck to anyone who doesn't know Lawrence's biography. I edited one of the novels he wrote during that period, and so I understood who everyone in the film was. But a film should not need those credentials to be understood. Too bad.