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Hardy heroine faces injustice with head high in ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES. Sunday night at 9, WNET/Ch.13
PBS’ “Masterpiece Theater” kicked off 2008 with a Jane Austen festival.
It kicks off 2009 with a new two-night, four-hour miniseries of Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d’Urbervilles,” which visually seems eerily similar to Austen. Yet it pokes into a far darker, more debilitating side of life for even the most buoyant and resilient of women in the 19th century.
What makes Tess Durbeyfield’s life difficult, happily, makes the drama rich for “Masterpiece” fans. The fact many will be familiar with the story makes this latest interpretation no less engrossing.
Gemma Arterton, most recently seen with a far different attitude as the latest Bond Girl, plays Tess traditionally and well.
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