Pluskylang Great Film overall

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

sanjin_9632 Very beautiful adaptation of the Du Maurier classic novel to a TV mini-series. There is a reason why Hitchcock directed this back in 1939. The atmosphere set is hypnotic at times. The music is well-chosen. It sets the right mood. When I first read the book, I imagined the setting to be similar but not quite as beautiful as shown here.The actors did quite a formidable job in this. Especially the supporting cast: Whalley, Harris (mumbling or not, his presence and portrayal of the character is nothing short of excellent), Shirley Henderson is great as ever. Jessica B-F is very talented and fits into the role of the main protagonist. A young girl, not too beautiful, but determined to go her own path, despite the obstacles life's put in her way. All in all, a great effort, in my opinion and I imagine the cost of making it wasn't as high as with many other TV productions nowadays. It's good to see that the BBC hasn't lost its touch when it comes to adapting a classic novel for the small screen. One more thing, the average rating is too low, out of reasons I cannot comprehend. Just doesn't appeal to anyone, I guess. 7.3/10

mikestockton If you are a US viewer you'll certainly need the subtitles turned on although I recommend you find something else to watch. I turned off after around 30 minutes because of the mumbling dialogue which has attracted thousands of complaints to the BBC.Sean Harris is utterly terrible in this role as he was in the channel four travesty Southcliffe.How the director/producers failed to notice the nonsensical dialogue is beyond me.Do yourselves a favour and buy the (very excellent) book and give this utterly terrible adaptation a wide berth.

Patrick James I greatly enjoyed this adaption of Jamaica Inn.It was dark and grubby, just like the monstrous crime at the heart of this tale.For me the key to Jamaica Inn is the portrayal of the extremely compromised characters. The production excelled at this.The only character who is not compromised is the evil fiend at the centre of it all of course. That person has abandoned morals and has found a form of liberation.The most compromised of all, Joss Merlyn was played by Sean Harris superbly. He is ensnared in something extremely nasty indeed. His attempt to drag the heroin into the evil cesspool he inhabits was really a first class piece of drama.Thank goodness today we have Formica worktops, dettol, vinyl floors and suchlike. We still have monstrous criminals but at least we have nice clean living environments for them.

ginagee61 OK so first things first the sound is a bit dodgy, but persevere because the screen crackles with tension. The writing is good and the filming style doesn't disappoint. It's suitably dark, and no one, not even out our heroine Mary Yellen, looks pretty in that vapid way that some costume dramas enjoy. She's a bit grubby, but still attractive, so she seems more realistic, because she isn't portrayed like Anne of Green Shipwrecks. The locations are treated like another character in the story. The acting is exciting, with huge amounts of magnetism. Each character has an interesting back story that is sometimes hinted at, sometimes explained. The thing I noticed first is that everyone is dirty, their hands, their hair, their clothes, and of they would be. Smuggling is a dirty business, this production lets you see just how dangerous and desperate it is.