Popular movie version of "Maxton Hall" - Desire's shadows and hidden truths
Young adult author Mona Kasten achieved great success in 2018 with her romance novels "Save me," "Save you," and "Save us," which garnered first, second, and third place on the bestseller list, respectively. It's no surprise that these books would be adapted into a film.
Now available on Amazon Prime Video, this six-part series titled "Maxton Hall - The World Between Us" features young actors Damian Hardung and Harriet Herbig-Matten in the lead roles. The show is based on the fictional private school "Maxton Hall" in the UK, where wealthy James Beaufort (Damian Hardung) encounters scholarship student Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten). From the start, the two engage in mutual conflict. They harbor a shared dark desire and secret.
Warning: spoilers for the content of "Maxton Hall" are included below.
Ruby discovers James' sister Lydia (Sonja Weißer) engaging in a passionate make-out session with their teacher Graham Sutton (Eidin Jalali), and decides to keep quiet about the incident in exchange for money from James. This arrangement doesn't last long, as James becomes insistent and advances on Ruby. She initially rejects his advances, but James continues to torment her. Eventually, he gets closer to her.
The classic tale of young love sees a recurring theme in which a free-spirited individual falls for a reserved beauty. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is a well-known example, as are many films and TV shows like "Dirty Dancing" (1987), "Titanic" (1997), "Twilight" (2008), and "Fifty Shades of Grey" (2015).
"Maxton Hall" typifies such love stories with its colorful and quirky tone, with dialogue like "Everyone deserves a world of possibilities" (Ruby) and "Someone like you can't hurt someone like us" (James). Readers with a penchant for this series should find satisfaction in the adaptation.
Lead actor Damian Hardung acknowledges the issues with the character he plays. "Books like 'Maxton Hall' are often written from a female perspective but propagate a certain male image, glorifying it," he says. However, he believes that viewers might be able to identify with James' fragility and his attitude. "If I can achieve that, it'll be a positive contribution to the topic of toxic masculinity," he explains.
"But if not, I'll likely be perpetuating an image that I completely reject in real life, and one that we should abandon in society."
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Source: symclub.org
