Romance seems to be the main feature of Valentine’s Day all over the world or at least the most eagerly publicized.

Flowers and roses, caramel chocolates in boxes with bow-ties, and candy centered heart-shaped chocolate. Then there are the kisses and sweet words.

For such a perfect world, I hear you cry.

Far From the Madding Crowd, (2015, UK), based on the Thomas Hardy novel (which was also adapted for the screen in the late 1960s), is about amour and passion, in rural Dorset, England, circa 1870, but is also about the deeper stuff of commitment.

Gabriel (Matthias Schoenaerts) approaches Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) for the hand of marriage with a forthright proposal. Offering such a straight-forward marriage proposal, before a relationship was deeply established, was the culture and how life turned around then.

And if a woman married Gabriel, she would be marrying ‘up’ which is better financially. Gabriel would provide for her and by having children the land continues to thrive.

However, he loses his cattle and then the nature of their relationship changes…she is in the position of power rather than him and this ‘reversal of fortune’ may prevent them getting together, considering she is already provided for.

He comes ‘under’ Bathsheba’s authority in an arrangement that means marrying her would be socially unacceptable.

Besides, this independent lady may not want a marriage relationship. Though a wealthier, respected suitor pines for her. Bathsheba could marry William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) whose proposals are bold by name and game.

Francis Troy (Tom Sturridge) offers something more romantic and amorous for the curious Bathsheba, but will this romance turn out to be genuine? Sometimes, romance may hide the truth.

We can only wonder what Gabriel is really thinking. Despite marriage being based on cultural norms, there may be some love in there, too. He never voices a bad word to her and endures through heartache, perhaps. He could conceal love that is not jealous or proud or boastful, but genuine.

That is the kind of love that, in the main, seems to have made a comeback at the cinema—although it has always been present in some ways.

Far From the Madding Crowd may sound like a pulpy romance, but the storytelling is strictly literary in style, adapted from a classic novel with a reputation of ‘good literature’.

In this film version, the characters are convincing and not soppy, the situations believable for the time, the plot not as predictable as one would think from the opening scenes.

The music, production design, costumes are all good. The script is well thought out and the story is always engaging. The lead performances are appealing. That’s the kind of film we have here.

The handsome mounting of the film just points to the tidiness and handsomeness of its central idea, that when love and commitment works, it can take a couple through ‘trials and tribulations’ and even transcends romance.