Meanwhile, sundry characters move in and out of the Forsytes' orbit, including a French businessman (Michael Maloney) stirring more troubles for Soames and an art dealer (Oliver Milburn) with designs on Fleur. As with Series One, all this will feel familiar to anyone who has seen the 26-part, 1967 version of The Forsyte Saga (the program that arguably created public television as we know it). Yet this updated effort renews and redefines the Forsytes' overlapping tragedies, with a more interior feel and a first-rate contemporary cast. As with its legendary predecessor, this Forsyte Saga depends heavily on the seemingly soulless Soames's slow evolution to humanity; Damian Lewis carries the load brilliantly. --Tom Keogh

"The Forsyte Saga" Part 1 suffered from a poor adaptation to the screen, serious miscasting of the main characters, and tatty costumes and sets. "The Forsyte Saga," Part 2, is worse. Apparently the writers felt that no one in the 21st century could possibly accept the chaste romance between Jon and Fleur Forsyte, so they heated it up for the modern viewer, while making nonsense of Galsworthy's story. In the novels, Jon Forsyte was such an innocent and idealist that he confounded the self-centered and possessive Fleur. In this film, however, he has sex with Fleur (on the day of his father's funeral service, no less!), then breaks off his relationship because he wants to honor his dead father's wishes. Where is the innocent idealist now? And Fleur, whose main faults were being spoiled, possessive, and calculating, pursues Jon relentlessly and entices him into a sexual relationship to catch him once and for all. It's no wonder that this Fleur, when faced with rejection, ends up bawling like a wounded cow on the lawn at Robin Hill. If an author can be made to turn in his grave, Galsworthy must certainly have been spinning then!

But why stop there? Why turn Young Jolyon from a long-suffering monument to tolerance, whose family's indecision put him into the grave, into a tottering old fool who chews up the carpet in nearly every scene? Why is Soames Forsyte's devotion to his only daughter presented as faintly incestuous? Why does Soames have to nearly rape Irene for a second time, then more or less reconcile with her at the end and leave Robin Hill with a jaunty stride and a satisfied smile? Whose story is this anyhow?

It's almost impossible to evaluate the acting in the film because the tasteless story defeats the actors from the beginning. However, no one seems to age appropriately in the 20 years between Part 1 and Part 2 except Young Jolyon (Rupert Graves), who looks like a little boy playing dress-up in his grandfather's clothes. Emma Griffiths Malin does her best with the role of Fleur, but looks much too mature in comparison with Lee Williams as a very youthful Jon. Damien Lewis's Soames still looks as if he is about to suffer an apoplexy at any moment. Gina McKee is more convincing as the older Irene than in Part 1, but most of what she says and does has no relationship to the novels. Oliver Milburn makes an attractive Michael Mont, but his role is so abbreviated that it is a mystery why Fleur would think to turn to him on the rebound from Jon.

If you want to experience "The Forsyte Saga" at its best, you should read the novels, at least the first trilogy, which forms the basis for the 2 parts of this TV adaptation. If you'd rather watch the story on TV, get the original 1967 BBC series, which, despite its dated production values and not being shot in color, is faithful to Galsworthy's story and presents a compelling, well-acted drama.

If you really want to see this version of "The Forsyte Saga," do yourself a favor and rent it. These films are not "keepers."


This was a BAD adaptation.   February 23, 2004
 10 out of 15 found this review helpful

I disliked Part One, but I'm trying to be fair to Part Two. First I'll say the things I liked about this part of the series:

-- The actors playing Jon & Fleur were really very good -- with the exception of Fleur's "screaming scene" at Robin Hill after she & Soames go there & she's rejected finally by Jon -- but I'll let that pass because that melodrama was really the director & the writer's fault. I only kept watching the series because they were so attractive together. The actor who played Michael Mont was good too -- although they didn't give him much depth to work with.

-- The last few minutes before Fleur's wedding, when Soames confesses to her about what he did during his marriage to Irene, and how painful it is to him that Irene should only remember that when she looks at him. (Not in the book, but a good scene and Damien Lewis really played it well.)

THAT'S ABOUT IT. There is SO much wrong with this adaptation -- not following the book, for one. To deviate in so many important respects (having Jon & Fleur have sex?? How 21st century, but not in 1921! And after the revelation of what happened between Soames & Irene?) The Prosper Profond character, what's up with him? He was a minor character in the book, and here he's blown up into someone who interferes in most of the character's lives. The miscasting of Gina McKee as Irene is another (continued) fault. She looked even less beautiful "old" than she did young. The fact that the writers turned "Young" Jolyon into this strident, yelling, negative force. The fact that no one told Damien Lewis that not moving his arms when he walked made him look like a zombie. I know he was trying to show Soames as a repressed Victorian fortress of a man, but come on. I love Damien Lewis but either this was not the part for him, or I'll just be generous to him and say, since the writers and producers got everything else wrong, their take on Soames was wrong too.

I'm guessing they are NOT going to film the remaining Forsythe novels, since they already showed Jon & Fleur having sex, and Irene & Soames shook hands at the end (a major part of the even later novel was that finally, SHE wanted to and HE wouldn't) so they have nothing else to dramatize. Thank God for small blessings!! Or will we get a Fleur pregnant by Jon and passing the baby off as Michael's? OH, please NO...did I just give the writers an idea? I take it back, I take it back!!


A continuation of a most fabulous DVD series ever ..   May 18, 2004
 9 out of 13 found this review helpful

This two disc six hour story is a continuation of series one and brings in the children of the two main characters, Soames and Ireene ..... The main characters of the first series do not disappear, and this series two is not a rehash of what happend to the parents but a continuation of the saga.

Why the publishers decided to split this into two series is totally beyond me since I can't imgine buying the second series and asking a million complicated and intricate question of who what when and where ... So don't do it buy both Series one and two and follow the story ...

Enclosed is a review I wrote for the Series one of this fabulous DVD set

Series One: DVD series with 2 espisodes per disc, a full 'nine' hour story was so exciting that my wife and I we had a veritable group show up at the house demanding that we can't finish the series without them being there to witness and enjoy every moment .....

And that's what happened, we not only went through the nine hours of Series one but also the more than 6 hours of Series two making it a FABULOUS weekend of 15 hours of exiting, thoughtfull, thrilling and tender stories of love, hate, revenege and posession .....

Trust me you are talking to a guy that falls asleep in most of today's movie theaters after the first half hour so for me to hang in there for a full 15 hourse makes this and absolute MUST recommendation to purchase for your DVD collection....

Oddy enough, I do however think that women from ages 19 and up will gobble up the love stories of the Forsythe saga while the men however MUST be at least 35 years old or older. I guess it has something to do with a lack of violence and explicit gratuitous sex, so, I suggest that you get a DVD of 'Kill Bill Vol1' and have them watch that in another room over and over ....

OK I'm not going to go into the story or more details in this review since much has already been written about this famous series ... suffice it to say that I certainly identified with the plight of one of the main characters, Soames, the wealthy Forsyth that marries Ireene, a beutifull young woman that does not love him.

Thats the devilishness of the story, he suffers for the love of a woman he can't posess while she suffers for the love of men that get taken away from her......

WOW this is the best EVER in DVD and it will deliciously blow away a weekend with you, your friends and significant others ....


ITS A TV SERIES   April 28, 2005
 8 out of 12 found this review helpful

Having watched both Parts of the 2002 FORSYTE SAGA I must take umbrage with many of the reviewers here that have chastised the writers for either not being faithful to Galsworthy or the original series. The current creators are under no obligation to include or exclude anything. They are creating "their" story based on a previous work and are free to adapt as they see fit. We should judge the material on its own merits.

Galsworthy wrote a book. The reader creates in his mind the movie and no two readers are likely to ever come up with the same images. Most readers will take issue with most adaptations of books. Its never going to be as they imagined it because it will be as the adaptor imagined it.

I found it interesting that so many of the reviewers pointed out that the first meeting between Jon and Fluer as children NEVER took place as though we were taking about historical events. It isn't history, its fiction. It may not have taken place in Glasworthy's novel because the idea never occurred him. I feel that scene made perfect sense in the scheme of things.

The other two scenes that many of the writers here had issue with were the sex scene which I somewhat agree didn't feel right under the circumstances of Young Jolyn's passing. Still we all handle the stress of a parent dying in our own way and I would defy any man to withstand the charms of woman like Fluer when it was being put forth in such an appealing manner.

I will take issue with the dragging out of the wedding. I longed for a more positive resolution between the lovers who seemed so suited to each other. I kept expecting young Jon to burst into the wedding and smash on window to stop it like some Jazz age Benjamin. Other wise why show so much detail of an inevitable wedding between Fluer ad Michael Mont. A man she clearly did not love. To me that was a tease and a filler.

The final scene between Soames and Irene really did not feel right either as many have said. It seemed a forced conclusion to try and give some kind of an upbeat ending to the Saga. We long for them to reach some kind of forgiveness and understanding but it just didn't seem right to me in the manner that it was portrayed.

I also questioned Irene giving Robin Hill up in the first place. This house had been built by the love of her life and had been the home that she so happily shared with Young Joylen. It seems to me that Irene giving up Robin Hill would be like Scarlet giving up Tara. But THAT I am sure she did do in the novel thus the title "To Let." What I am saying here is Galsworthy was wrong and the screenwriters were true to his material.

All in all I was very moved by the series. I though the look of the sets and costumes was magnificent. Gina McKee stole my heart in the film NOTTING HILL and was the chief reason for my interest in the FS. She was absolutely fabulous beginning to end.

Part one would be five stars because of Mckee. Part two four stars because she wasn't in it as much.