1870’s England. Orphaned, independent and nonconformist, Bathsheba Everdene inherits her uncle’s farm. Determined to live a free and emancipated life, she refuses to get married, instead managing her farm like a man despite her lack of experience and her bourgeois education. But destiny places three very different men in her path, each of whom wants her as his wife: the rich William Boldwood, Sergeant Troy and the shepherd Gabriel Oake.

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The choice of Carey Mulligan as the lead in this movie is both obvious and boring – given her work in Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby. This sixth adaption of Thomas Hardy’s novel is directed by the unpredictable Thomas Vinterberg – widely praised for The Celebration, ridiculed for It’s All About Love, then ignored for the next three films before being rehabilitated with The Hunt. His latest effort is a contradiction: well-crafted but syrupy; bathed in shimmering light and elegant costumes that attempt to mask a banality that slowly smothers the story. The mystery and modernity of the beautiful first few scenes eventually wither into a stream of bucolic panoramas and pouty romance, ending with a drab last half hour. But Far From the Madding Crowd is mainly aimed at audiences who love this average sort of thing and are happy to spend time watching a romantic costume drama that is not great, but not terrible either.