Brideshead Revisited descends into the sinister inner workings of a prominent English family during the 1930s. Though the film is rich in detail and continually intense, the characters and jumbled plot structure limit the film.

In this adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel, Brideshead Revisited, Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) leaves for Oxford and meets the infamous Lord Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw). Ryder spends his first summer with the Flyte family — a visual collage of light, wine and frolicking — at its grand estate, Brideshead. The film winds down after this first idyllic summer, pushing Ryder into a future of war, bleak Catholicism and unfulfilled lusts.

When they spend the last half of their summer in Venice, Ryder becomes dangerously entangled in the family. He falls in love with the sister, Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell), refuses the love of the brother and is cornered by their mother (Emma Thompson).

The plot is complex and intriguing; spanning a decade, it pulls the audience into a dark world of family feud, guilt, secret pleasures and damnation.

The film starts light and airy, following the antics of an idiosyncratic group of Oxford undergrads. The brilliance of the film comes with the second half, which ends with a dark, anticlimactic finale.

The characters, while intriguing, fall short. Brideshead Revisited hosts a group of brooding individuals who, while probably explained thoroughly in the novel, don’t make complete sense in the film. Their actions seem dramatic, their decisions sudden, and the film seems consequently fragmented and less intimate.

Almost overshadowing the 10-year-long romances and lusts, the film is surprisingly overtaken by its portrayal of Catholicism. The beginning is scattered with brief mentions of how religion controls the family, but by the end, it is Catholicism that pushes characters together and apart. Religion’s effect on the characters develops the dark tones of the film and appears as a seemingly villainous force by denying each character his or her deepest desires.

Brideshead Revisited manages an epic feel as the film’s first scene, dramatic and unexplained, comes from the middle of the story. The plot then rushes back 10 years to explain what brought the characters to that point. Instead of building anticipation, the transition leads to a stream of meandering scenes. When the film finally returns to the first scene, it seems expected, and the real climax doesn’t come until after the 10-year mark. It’s an interesting style but one that doesn’t seem to add anything important to the film.

The premise of the film is interesting, and the scenes, from places like the English countryside and the streets of Morocco, are breathtaking. While it’s worth seeing, the characters and organization of the film unfortunately inhibit Brideshead Revisited from being a true masterpiece.