The Way We Live Now
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
David Yates
Robert Brydon
Shirley Henderson
Cheryl Campbell
Helen Schlesinger
Toby Jones
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
The trials and tribulations of young love, honorable men, the antics of the upper class and the greed that lies just beneath the surface of Victorian London. Financial wizard Augustus Melmotte arrives in London, inciting universal avarice and hopes of marriage among young men with an eye on his daughter, Marie. Profligate Sir Felix Carbury decides he'll have a try in this nuptial sweepstakes. Meanwhile, Felix's mother, Lady Carbury, hopes to restore the family fortune by marrying her daughter, Hetta, to her country-squire cousin, Roger. Georgiana Longestaffe, snobbish but desperate to marry, arrives in London as a reluctant guest of the Melmottes. Melmotte has bought her family's country house as a dowry for Marie, who is to marry the aristocratic nonentity Lord Nidderdale, not Felix, whom Melmotte considers worthless. But Marie has money of her own and conspires with Felix to elope to America. Meanwhile, Paul is headed for Mexico to inspect progress on the railroad. Before leaving, he visits Hetta to declare his love. In Mexico, Paul learns from Fisker that the railroad is at a standstill, since Melmotte is siphoning off the capital for other purposes. Paul returns to London determined to expose Melmotte, who is in the midst of a campaign for Parliament, paid for out of railway funds. Facing ruin, Paul nonetheless proposes to Hetta, who accepts. But when she learns about Winifred from Felix, she breaks the engagement. With Brehgert asking for security against the declining railway shares, Melmotte tries to get Marie's money, which was put in her name as protection from creditors of an earlier swindle. Marie refuses, and Melmotte contemplates another way out.
Director
David Yates
Cast
Robert Brydon
Shirley Henderson
Cheryl Campbell
Helen Schlesinger
Toby Jones
Michele Dotrice
Jon Rumney
Michael Riley
Roger Hammond
Miranda Otto
Lilo Baur
Maxine Peake
Anne-marie Duff
