"Brideshead Revisited" is a 1945 novel by Evelyn Waugh that was made into a much beloved 1982 BBC miniseries. Both have earned critical acclaim and a devoted audience. So why make a new film? Was it just to cash in on a sure thing or perhaps to fill the need for a condensed telling of the story? I'm afraid this new version fails to do either.

Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) meets Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw) at college. Sebastian is flamboyant, rich and gay. He takes Charles home on holiday to Brideshead Castle, his family home, which he believes will be empty. But soon family arrives and Charles meets Sebastian's mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) and his sister Julia (Hayley Attwell).

Sebastian and Julia are kindred spirits who claim defiance against Lady Marchmain's staunch Catholicism, but only to Charles and only when the three of them are alone. Charles seems at first smitten with both siblings and also keenly curious about this complex family and their magnificent home.

Soon Lady Marchmain turns to Charles with her fears about Sebastian and his lifestyle. Charles gladly accepts the role of watching over Sebastian and does so over many years. The intense family life at Brideshead is juxtaposed with his own solitary father, who seems only slightly aware of his son's comings and goings.

Meanwhile, Charles has become infatuated with Julia. This puts strain on his relationships with both Sebastian and Lady Marchmain, for Charles is an atheist. As her mother becomes aware that Julia shares his feelings, the film turns a sharp corner to closely examine the family's Catholic traditions.

The impact of the movie hit me late. Up until about halfway through I kept waiting for the magic. There was sufficient preparation for something stunning to happen. And then there was an understated, quiet scene that made me cry.

Yet even though it moved me, I still found the film to be poorly structured. It felt like a story that needed more time to be told; it felt like a novel that should have been three movies; it felt like a mini-series squeezed into a movie. It's bad enough that that's what it is: I think the filmmakers could have done more to avoid this drawback from being so clearly felt.

The layered themes are just too much for a two-hour movie. This is first and foremost a story about family and how family members can hurt each other even with the very best of intentions. Apparently that isn't romantic enough to sell tickets, so the film has been marketed as a love triangle between brother and sister and the man who loved them both.

That story certainly is central to the action, but I wouldn't even say that tragic love is even the film's secondary theme. The story is about family first, religion second and love third. The love story is a convenient way to introduce an observer and a narrator, and I suspect Waugh used it to get the reader invested before he presented the bigger issues of faith and redemption.

Aside from all its faults, "Brideshead Revisited" is a beautiful film full of architecture and art, great sweeping lawns, opulent fountains and naked men swimming in them. I'd have to recommend it if you like that sort of thing. In places it reminded me of "Atonement," "Wings of the Dove," and "A Room With A View." Up to a point I was drawn in and entertained, but in the end there was little payoff. I felt cheated.