Jewels (1992)

Very well executed

Deeper than the descriptions

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I really love this show - mainly due to the brilliant acting of Anthony Andrews who I believe was cast perfectly for this role. He played the role of the charming William perfectly... in my opinion his performance really makes Jewels a success. I liked Annette O'Toole also, but found her performance a little grating - especially in the labour scene which I thought was a little over the top. I preferred the first half of the series to the second half. I think that it turned into a bit of a soap opera to me with all their wayward children and their love lives :) I could watch the first half where William and Sarah first meet over and over though. Anthony's performance makes Jewels worth watching.

I remember reading the book Jewels a long time ago. I was going through a Danielle Steel faze and fell in love with this book. So I was thrilled when they made a movie about it. I have to admit, I loved the first part of the movie best. The romance between Sarah and William was my favorite part in the book and in the movie.My other favorite aspect of the movie was Anthony Andrews as William. I love this actor, ever since I saw him as a kid in two movies I loved, Ivanhoe and The Scarlett Pimpernel. Casting him in the role of William Whitfield lent the TV melodrama a real sense of legitimacy. He is a great actor, and the perfect choice to play the Duke. Not only is he devastatingly handsome, he has a great sense of humor. You first saw it in The Scarlet Pimpernel, and was very important for this movie.I say that hesitantly though because I have to say that I was very disappointed that almost all of the humor shared between William and Sarah was taken out of the movie. I remember when I read the book, I had tears rolling down my cheeks because I was laughing so hard. And I was horrified to hear only one or two lines from the book shared between both characters.While I loved Anthony Andrews as William, I was not as certain about the actress playing Sarah. I like Annette O'Toole, I really do, but I didn't in this movie. I felt her acting was too over the top in some scenes and she was described much differently in the book and maybe I was too influenced by that description to really enjoy the performance. I found Annette's shaking her head from side to side to be too distracting.Like the book, I lost interest during the Nazi invasion, and there was another major change. In the book, the character of Philip actually loved the character of Joachim Von Mannheim, the Nazi who had taken over the château during the war, but in the movie, he hated him.The rest of the story involving the children interested me even less. With the exception of the brothers all being cute, the last part of the movie was very boring. Typical spoiled brats all making huge mistakes, hurting their mother.Spoiler:The ending was the dumbest I have ever seen for a miniseries. The idea that Julian would associate not only with his brother, but his ex-wife, who left Julian for Philip, and gave him their son, without caring a thing about it was ludicrous. There was the whole family, at a christening, including Philip and Julian's ex-wife, standing next to her son, and everyone is happily smiling at one another. Please!This ending did not happen in the book, and I was very disappointed by it.This is really the Jewel in the crown of all Danielle Steel novels made into a TV movie. But for anyone who read the book and loved it like me, there are some big disappointments.Still a good watch, very romantic in many places.

I had seen the film many times and thought Miss O'Toole had a great performance. In the movie, the children grew to be snobbish and selfish. I felt that their mother was showing her devotion by bailing them out of every mess they got into. She sacrificed her wishes and desires for their well being and security. I feel that she was brave in war time and true to her Husband in his illness.

As far as Danielle Steel's TV movie adaptions of her books, this is one of her very best, along with Once in a Lifetime and Vanished. Sure, it's a fluffy melodrama, but who cares?? Annette O'Toole and Anthony Andrews are both wonderful, and you really believe in their everlasting love for each other, and their children. The portrayals of the children (both as children and adults) are credible as well. Interesting note: Bradley Cole, who played Freddie, currently plays Prince Richard Winslow on Guiding Light.