Out of the almost 16 movies that I have seen Colin Firth in since recently discovering the A&E production of "Pride and Prejudice," I have to say THIS is Colin Firth at his finest!
This film was before his Darcy days and before the entire world's female population fell head long into swoon-ville as he emerged from the lake with a sodden shirt, damp curly hair and a little-lost-boy look to Elizabeth Bennet.
However, after watching "The Master of the Moor" I was utterly amazed again at this man's talent to convey his emotions and feelings on screen so that the viewer forgets they are watching Colin Firth and sees the character, Stephen Whalby. They see all his internal hang-ups, family issues, and confusion. You experience something when Firth is on the screen that is not felt with other modern day actors and actresses.
From the beginning to the end, he looks like an intelligent lost boy who doesn't know what is happening to him and is very confused on the events taking place around him. However, in the last segment, from the moment that Det. Insp. Manciple (George Costigan) arrives on the scene again after playing a near psycho is the first two episodes, the movie takes a drastic switch that even I couldn't have foreseen although I have to admit when I reached this segment, the clues confused me and rightly so. It was one of the best switches I had seen in a long time.
The ending is another switch that wasn't as shocking as it would normally have been but was more artistically correct for the characters involved. (Will not share the secrets of what happened on the moor! You will never guess and have to experience the full measure of it yourself!)
I have to admit when first hearing the name "Master of the Moor," I was really hoping for a more Gothic-Jane-Eyre type movie with high boots, lord of the manor style, and dark mansions. After watching this movie, however, I have to say that it was the best movie of Firth's that I have seen so far.
Firth fans who have not seen "Master of the Moor," take my word for it. It is worth the trouble to gain a copy. This actor is phenomenal at portraying emotions by not doing or saying anything spectacular.
He is a REAL "master of the cinema."