Review: A Handful of Dust

This 1998 film version of the Waugh novel is peculiarly grim on a number of levels. There's hardly a likeable character in this bunch of social climbers and those they look up to.  On a more prosaic level, the copy on Amazon Prime has dreadful picture quality.

On the plus side, the acting and story perfectly captures a particular kind of Englishman/woman which seems to have largely disappeared. I also enjoyed spotting actors in their much more youthful incarnations. Guinness, in what is one of his last parts, gets to play an extremely odd character - a biracial illiterate king of a south American tribe with a fondness for Dickens. It's the kind of part which would likely attract considerable debate nowadays.

Verdict: Well made but uninvolving adaptation of what was probably a biting satire once upon a time.